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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



MODERN 
PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 



Modern 
Practical Theology 



A MANUAL OF 

HOMILETICS, LITURGICS, POIMENICS, 
ARCHAGICS, PEDAGOGY, SOCIOLOGY, 
AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE .... 



BY 

Ferdinand S. Schenck, D.D. 

Professor of Practical Theology, Theological Seminary of the Reformed 
Church in America at New Brunswick, N. f. 




FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 
1903 



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THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS 

Two Copies Kectjivyt 

SEP 29 1903 

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•■ CLASS CL Wfe No | 

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COPY B. 



Copyright, 1903, by 

FUNK & WAGNAIAS COMPANY 

{Printed in the United States of America] 

Published in September, 1903 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction vii 

Books Kecommended xi 

I. Homiletics 15 

II. Liturgies 72 

III. Poimenics 102 

IV. Archagics 131 

V. Pedagogy 160 

VI. Sociology 192 

VII. The English Bible 245 

Index 313 



INTRODUCTION 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Practical Theology is distinguished from the other 
branches of Theology in that it is the application of 
them all to the influencing of human life. 

Theology is the sum of our knowledge of God. Nat- 
ural Theology is all we know of God from nature. 
Bevealed Theology is all we know of God from the 
Bible. Exegetlcal and Biblical Theologies derive their 
knowledge from the careful study of the sacred writings. 
Historical Theology derives its knowledge from the 
dealings of God with the race of man as recorded in 
secular and especially in sacred and church history. 
Systematic Theology arranges the knowledge of God 
derived from all sources into a system. 

All these branches are concerned with knowing. 
Practical Theology is concerned with doing. It stimu- 
lates to knowing by placing a practical estimate upon it. 
It incites the ambition to be learned in order that one 
may be wise. It aims to utilize all the knowledge that 
can be acquired for the welfare of mankind. Knowing 
is of little worth without doing, but is of vast worth for 
doing. The quality of the work depends upon the 
quality of knowing, but the quality of knowing may be 
very fine and worthless without being used. One may 
be a fine scholar and a great theologian, but a poor min- 
ister. Practical Theology aims to make him an equally 
fine and great preacher and pastor. But Practical The- 



viii INTEODUCTION 

ology, in order to be practical, must have something to 
work with — it must have a man learned in all the other 
branches of Theology. It incites to the widest and 
most thorough culture that one may be most widely and 
most thoroughly useful. 

The branches of Practical Theology cover all the 
work of the ministry. Homiletics shows how truth may 
be best presented in preaching. Liturgies directs in the 
conduct of the public worship of God. Poimenics stimu- 
lates the minister and leads him in the care of souls. 
Archagics develops him in organizing and leading the 
church as a ministering and aggressive force in conquer- 
ing the world for Christ. 

Pedagogics cultivates the minister in teaching and in 
leading the many teaching forces of the Church. Soci- 
ology shows how the knowledge of God and of His laws 
in the social life of mankind, and especially in the social 
life of the Bible, may be applied in establishing the 
Kingdom of God, the ideal Society, in each community 
and in the whole earth. 

The study of the English Bible runs through the 
whole course, fostering familiarity with and use of the 
Sword of the Spirit in all the work of the ministry. 

In pursuing the study of Practical Theology we shall 
use this Manual as giving the outlines of the various 
branches of the subject. These outlines are not liable 
to change materially in a few years; but such changes 
as are made, and the many details and applications of 
the subject, will be given in the supplemental lectures in 
the classroom. 



INTEODTJCTION ix 

In each main division of the subject, as a rule, one 
book will be recommended for reference, and several 
books for power or stimulation. It is expected that 
each student shall prepare a synopsis of the reference 
book, and shall read such portions of his work as may be 
called for in the classroom. 

Seminar work and laboratory investigation along 
suggested lines will be conducted where the subject per- 
mits. Much time will also be given to putting theories 
into practise in all available ways, especially in pre- 
paring and preaching sermons. In the English Bible 
course each student is expected to prepare a synopsis of 
the readings of each week, covering the whole Bible in 
the course of three years. 

Besides the suggestions of the manual, supplemental 
lectures upon the books of the Bible and the uses to 
which they are best adapted will be given in the class- 
room. 

Acknowledgment is gratefully made for many ideas 
and some expressions to the books recommended for 
reference and power. 



BOOKS RECOMMENDED 



HOMILETICS 

FOR reference: 

Preparation and Delivery of Sermons. By J. A. Broadus. 
A. S. Armstrong & Son, New York. $1.75. 

for power: 

Yale Lectures on Preaching. By Henry Ward Beecher. 
The Pilgrim Press, Boston. $1.50. 

The Philosophy of Preaching. By A. J. F. Behrends. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.00. 

Lectures on Preaching. By Phillips Brooks. Pacific Press 
Publishing Co., Oakland, Cal. $1.50. 

Preaching in the New Age. By A. J. Lyman, D.D. F. H. 
Revell Co., New York. 75 cents. 

Before an Audience. By Nathan Sheppard. Funk & Wag- 
nails Company, New York. 75 cents. 

LITURGICS 

FOR reference: 

Practical Liturgies. By David D. Demarest, D.D. Theolog- 
ical Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J. $1.00. 

for power: 

Extempore Prayer. By M. P. Tailing. F. H. Revell Co., 
New York. $1.00. 

Musical Ministries in the Church. By W. S. Pratt. F. H. 
Revell Co., New York. $1.00. 

Hymns Historically Famous. By N. Smith. Advance Pub- 
lishing Company, Chicago, 111. $1.25. 



xii BOOKS KECOMMENDEB 

Yale Lectures on Preaching (Prayer and Music). Second 
Series. By Henry Ward Beecher. The Pilgrim Press, 
Boston. $1.50. 

POIMENICS 

FOR reference: 

Pastoral Theology. By David D. Demarest, D.D. Theolog- 
ical Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J. $1.00. 

FOR POWER: 

Pastoral Theology. By William G. T. Shedd, D.D. Charles 
Scribner's Sons, New York. $2.50. 

Building Eras in Religion. By Horace Bushnell, D.D. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.50. 

The Christian Pastor and the Working Church. By Wash- 
ington Gladden. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 
$2.50. 

Tongue of Fire. By W. Arthur. Harper & Brothers, New 
York. 50 cents. 

The Imitation of Christ. By Thomas a Kempis. Many 
editions at various prices. 

ARCHAGICS 
FOR power: 

The World the Subject of Redemption. By W. H. Free- 
mantle. Longmans, Green & Co., New York. $2.00. 

Social Progress and Christian Missions. By J. S. Dennis. 
F. H. Revell Co., New York. 3 vols. Each, $2.50. 

Miracles of Missions. By Arthur T. Pierson. Funk & Wag- 
nails Company, New York. Vols. I., II., III., each, 
$1.00; Vol. IV., 90 cents; postage, 10 cents. 

Institutional Church. By E. Judson. Lentilhon & Co., New 
York. 60 cents. 

Social Settlements. By C. R. Henderson. Lentilhon & Co^ 
New York. 60 cents. 

Battle with the Slums. By Jacob A. Riis. The Macmillan 
Co., New York. $2.00. 



BOOKS EECOMMENDED xiii 

PEDAGOGY 

FOR REFERENCE 

The Education of Man. By F. A. W. Froebel. D. Appleton 
& Co., New York. $1.50. 

for power: 

Talks to Teachers on Psychology. By W. James. Henry 
Holt & Co., New York. $1.60. 

Psychology: Briefer Course. By W. James. Henry Holt & 
Co., New York. $1.50. 

The Meaning of Education. By N. M. Butler. E. L. Kel- 
logg & Co., New York. $1.00. 

Principles of Religious Education. Edited by H. C. Potter. 
Longmans, Green & Co., New York. $1.25. 

The Teacher, the Child, and the Book. By A. H. Schauffler. 
A. Wilde & Co., Boston. $1.00. 

Sunday-School Success. By Amos R. Wells. F. H. Revell 
Co., New York. $1.25. 



SOCIOLOGY 

FOR reference: 

Elements of Sociology. By F. H. Giddings. The Macmillan 
Company, New York. $1.10. 

for power: 

Faith and Social Service. By G. Hodges. Thomas Whit- 
taker, New York. $1.25. 

Religion in History. By A. M. Fairbairn. Lentilhon & Co., 
New York. $1.25. 

Social Law of Service. By Richard T. Ely. Methodist Book 
Concern, New York. 90 cents. 

Social Teachings of Jesus. By Shailer Mathews. The Mac- 
millan Co., New York. $1.50. 

Social Evolution. By Benjamin Kidd. The Macmillan Co.* 
New York. $1.50. 



xiv BOOKS RECOMMENDED 

THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

FOR POWER: 

A Layman's Study of the English Bible. By Francis Bowen. 

Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.00. 
The Bible and Other Literature in the Nineteenth Century. 

By Luther T. Townsend. Methodist Book Concern, 

New York. 40 cents. 
Literary Study of the Bible. By R. G. Moulton. D. C. 

Heath & Co., Boston. $2.00. 
Hints on Bible Study. Essays by H. C. Trumbull, A. Phelps, 

and Others. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 

$1.00. 
A Key to the Gospels. By D. S. Gregory. Funk & Wagnalls 

Co., New York. $1.00. 
Old Testament and Content. By James Robertson. F. H. 

Re veil Co., New York. 25 cents, 40 cents. 
New Testament and Its Writers. By J. A. McClymont. 

F. H. Revell Co., New York. 25 cents, 40 cents. 



MODERN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 



CHAPTEE I 
HOMILETICS 

Homiletics treats of the preparation and delivery 
of sermons. It is the science of which preaching is the 
art. It has these characteristics of a science: (1) It 
gathers all the facts about preaching; (2) it finds what 
is common to these facts (thus grouping them into 
classes) ; and (3) it discovers the forces and laws running 
through these groups. 

Preaching has a long history and wide existence in 
the world to-day. Homiletics carefully examines, 
gathers, and compares the facts from this history and 
experience; determines what is good preaching of vari- 
ous kinds; and discovers the principles and rules lead- 
ing to such preaching. It is a part of a still wider scope 
of investigation, for preaching is only one branch of 
oratory. 

We are to gather from the world's experience in ora- 
tory how we may become good orators; from the world's 
experience in preaching how we are to become good 
preachers. 

While Homiletics learns from the experience of all 
ages and races, it incites also to lofty ideals. There 
should be a constant improvement in preaching; indeed, 
the best preaching is still to come. The rules and prin- 

15 



16 MODEKN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

ciples of preaching develop individuality and foster 
genius. The laws of preaching are based upon the 
fundamental principles of our nature: the way in which 
one soul may persuade another or many others. The 
great preachers, from Moses to Paul and to the present 
time, have instinctively or purposely obeyed these laws, 
and the laws can never be set aside. While great genius 
can never be independent of law, there is room within 
the law for the greatest genius, and the man with ordi- 
nary gifts by obeying law may make the most of him- 
self in preaching. 

The importance of preaching can be estimated in 
three ways: (1) from its nature and history; (2) from 
its aims; and (3) by comparison with kindred forces. 

i. From its nature and history. Oratory is the trans- 
mission of power by oral speech from the orator to the 
people, so that his feelings, thoughts, and purposes be- 
come theirs and sway them. Oratory may be upon 
many themes, but it is only noble when the orator lifts 
up people to a higher and better condition of feeling, 
thinking, and willing. Our Lord commanded His dis- 
ciples to teach to all nations all He had taught them. 
The Christian religion has nothing to hide, no occult 
rites or beliefs, but everything to proclaim, and Christ 
is the authority for preaching the Gospel. Preaching is 
the public advocacy of the truths and practises of the 
Christian religion by one approved by the Church and 
usually in connection with a service of worship. 

Preaching, therefore, is the noblest kind of oratory: 
it has the loftiest theme; it has the highest sanction, and 
it is spoken in the best surroundings. The preacher who 
is swayed himself may feel that God's power is passing 



HOMILETTCS 17 

through him to lift up the people. It is the carrying on 
of the work of the Old Testament prophets in spirit. It 
is following the example of Christ, the greatest preacher. 
It is obeying the command of Christ to teach all men all 
that He taught them. It is carrying out the work of the 
apostles and disciples as recorded in the K"ew Testament. 
It has illustrated the Divine wisdom of its appointment 
in that it has been the characteristic element in the 
spread of Christianity. It has brought salvation to all 
classes of men, and has elevated the intellectual and 
moral conditions of communities and nations. 

The age of prediction is past, but the age of prophecy 
can never pass while God sends truth and man needs it. 
The preacher of righteousness from God through Christ 
will always have a message that will secure a hearing. 
The lifting of Christ still draws all men. People will 
crowd churches in all ages and climes to hear a mes- 
senger of God. 

2. From its aims. These may be described from differ- 
ent standpoints, as we advance from one to the other of 
which the importance of preaching grows upon us. 
They are : 

(«) The conversion of souls. To turn an immortal 
soul from darkness, sin, and death to light, righteous- 
ness, and life is a work of vast importance* 

(6) The culture of believers in holiness, in character, 
and conduct like unto Christ's. The reconstruction of 
manhood into God's likeness surpasses in importance all 
issues of courts or senates. 

(c 1 ) The establishment of the Kingdom of God on 
earth. The reconstruction of an individual not only, but 
of society, of humanity, into God's ideal society the wide 



18 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

world over. All good statesmanship and generalship 
are but reflections of this all-embracing importance of 
preaching. 

(d) The one great aim of preaching is to make man 
conscious of the presence of God and to bring him into 
right relationship with Him. Eight living in time and 
eternity for the individual, society, the race, is included 
in the importance of preaching. 

S. By comparison with kindred forces. Preaching is so 
important that nothing can take its place. The printed 
page can not, for, tho a mighty force, it lacks the element 
of personal contact, the impress of personality. 

Public worship can not, for, tho its influence upon the 
character of the worshiper is very great, it is itself de- 
pendent upon the instruction and incitement of preach- 
ing. 

Pastoral work can not. For, tho the touch of soul with 
soul makes marvelous changes, it is limited to individ- 
uals, while preaching reaches masses of people; pastoral 
work helps in preaching, but can not take its place. 

Good preaching is speaking the truths of the Chris- 
tian religion in a public assembly in a way to convince 
the judgment, kindle the imagination, move the feelings, 
arouse the conscience, and give a powerful impulse to 
the will. The preacher must use all these avenues to 
the souls of men, but the accumulation of power through 
them all must be upon the will. He should always 
speak with a purpose to have the soul decide for God. 

The personality of the speaker is of first importance. 

The power to awaken the soul is soul power. The 
preacher must be genuine, he must avoid all artificiality, 
and he must have clear convictions of truth to convince 



HOMILETICS 19 

the judgment, a quick imagination to kindle the imagina- 
tion, strong feelings to move the feelings, an awakened 
conscience to arouse the conscience, and a powerful will 
to give an impulse to the will. He must be swayed by 
the truth if he would bring others under its power. A 
strong personality exercises a kind of coercion over an 
audience. 

The manner of speaking is of scarcely less importance; 
it, too, must be genuine, avoiding all artificiality. The 
speaker, physically considered, is simply the channel 
through which the soul power moves; the channel must 
not impede, but easily and fully convey. The articula- 
tion must be easily understood, the tones of the voice 
must correctly express the feelings, the pose of the body 
and the gestures must naturally and fully convey thought 
and feeling, The four languages of the orator must be 
at his easy command : Articulation, Tone, Pose, and 
Gesture; and the soul power should be so strong that it 
needs them all to express fully its message. 

There are at least four requisites to good preach- 
ing: 

1. Piety. This furnishes the motive power. There 
must be deep loyalty to Christ, a strong love for Him, 
a sharing His love for men, and a controlling moral 
earnestness. 

2. Natural Gifts. These supply the instruments: clear 
thinking, strong feeling, a clear conscience, a powerful 
will. 

S. Knowledge. This gives material. There must be 
thorough knowledge of Bible truth, and a general knowl- 
edge of all that can throw light upon it and enforce it. 
Cicero says: "The orator ought to know everything." 



20 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

4. Oratorical SMIL This uses the power, the instru- 
ments, and the material in the best way to produce the 
desired result. Without this last the others are in vain. 
The preacher should labor earnestly and constantly to 
acquire oratorical skill. He should apply the principles 
of rhetoric and elocution to correct his defects; he should 
cultivate his gifts so that he becomes a good speaker, a 
fine orator. While each preacher ought to be himself, not 
another — genuine, not artificial — he should be the best 
corrected, most highly developed, and most thoroughly 
improved self that is possible. Each preacher must 
think so carefully of himself, and of his manner of think- 
ing and speaking, and must practise so constantly, that 
he becomes at length a master of himself, having all his 
powers at full command without conscious effort. He 
must think of himself so carefully that he can at length 
speak without thinking of himself at all. 

Two powers are absolutely essential to the success 
of the preacher as of the lawyer. 

The first concerns the subject The lawyer must see 
the point of his case. So the preacher must have the 
power of seeing the point of his text or subject. How- 
ever little or great this power is to begin with, he must 
ever cultivate it. 

The second concerns the object. The lawyer has but 
one object in each speech, viz., to win his case, and so to 
win it that he can hold it against all appeal. So the 
preacher should have one object to each sermon: what he 
intends to accomplish. Now the question with the lawyer 
is how to lodge the point of the case in the mind and 
heart of the jury or the court so as to win the verdict. 
He resolves the point, or central thought, into as many 



HOMILETICS 21 

propositions as seems needed, and he enforces and illus- 
trates these with the sole purpose of winning the verdict. 
It is a very poor comfort to him, as he comes out of court, 
to have some one say to him, "That was a brilliant 
speech/' if he has lost his case; and especially if, on re- 
flection, he concludes that the brilliancy of the speech 
was the reason he lost his case. The lawyer is not try- 
ing to show himself off, but to win cases. So with the 
minister; each sermon should have a subject, and just as 
truly each sermon should have an object — both should be 
clearly before the preacher's mind. A good sermon uses 
the subject to accomplish the object — uses the Word of 
God to advance the cause of God, to win the verdict for 
Him. 

The relation of a text to a sermon is something 
like that of a corner-stone to a building, or of a seed to 
its plant. The text is the portion of Scripture selected 
to give sanction or authority to the sermon. The sermon 
is the development of the truth of the text — an explana- 
tion, illustration, and application of the teaching of this 
portion of God' s word. 

The text gives support to the sermon and general out- 
line as a corner-stone does to a building; it gives the 
living principle unfolding according to its own nature, 
as a seed does according to the nature of its plant. The 
sermon is an organization resting on the text, or an 
organism growing out of the text. The preaching in the 
early ages of the Church was largely expository; it was 
in the nature of a running commentary on the connected 
thought or text of the Scriptures. During the following 
ages the comments lengthened and the Scripture pas- 
sages shortened, until it reached the usage of the present 



22 MODEEN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

day. It is evidently, however, an abuse of the text to 
use it simply as a motto. Objections are sometimes 
made to the use of texts, but they arise generally either 
from a wrong view of the Bible, a lack of reverence for 
it, or from a wrong use of texts as fanciful interpreta- 
tions (the spiritualizing use) or as mere mottoes. 

The proper use of texts is of great advantage to 
the preacher; it keeps him to the ideal of preaching, 
the enforcing Bible truth; it gives him a wide variety of 
themes, keeping him from his own narrowness — the 
Word of God is wider and deeper than any man's mind; 
and by faithfully adhering to it he becomes a specialist 
in Bible truths, and thus secures the standing and power 
of a specialist in the community. Such usage is also of 
great advantage to the people in that it leads them to a 
higher valuation of preaching as the setting forth of 
God's Word, and so quickens a hunger and thirst for 
the Bible. 

One general purpose should enter into the selection of 
texts: to neglect no teaching of God's Word on one 
hand, and no need of the people on the other. A 
careful estimate of the need of the people covers 
both, calling for a general and progressive teaching 
of God's Word, while special needs are met as occasion 
arises. 

Having this general purpose, one will instinctively 
avoid choosing as texts: 

(1) Spurious passages; (2) All sayings of uninspired 
men — these may be true, but are not distinctively Bible 
truths upon which to base a sermon — and (3) All 
merely odd texts. Wit or humor to be of any value 
must be in the nature of a surprise. There are instances 



HOMILETICS 23 

of both in the Bible. But a text is deliberately chosen 
to be explained and enforced, and odd texts are deprived 
of their wit by being made the base of a serious discus- 
sion, and people quickly see that such discussion is 
foreign to the text. 

The kinds of texts to be chosen, as a rule, are clear 
texts rather than obscure, and great texts rather than 
small. To choose occasionally an obscure text is allowable 
when one is<able so to explain it as to add materially to the 
knowledge of the Bible, or when such explanation facili- 
tates approach to a distasteful subject. But in general 
the time and strength required to explain an obscure 
text might better be given to enforcing a clear one. So 
great texts are to be chosen rather than small. The 
truths in the Bible of relatively small importance may 
be properly treated in a sermon, but should not form 
the basis of one. Select a text whose truth is worth ex- 
pending all your force upon, and whose consideration is 
worth the careful attention of the people. Great truths 
enlarge and enrich both pastor and people. They are 
frequently familiar texts, but this should incite to fresh 
and forceful treatment. They awaken expectation, but 
this should stimulate the preacher to his utmost. Choose 
great texts, and you are saved from labor to make a 
small text seem great, tho you must labor to make the 
sermon correspond somewhat to the text. 

The preacher has a clear duty to his text. He 
must be absolutely true to the Word of God; only thus 
can he have any self-respect, or win any respect from 
God or man, and only thus can he win the respect of the 
people for the Bible. He must never be fanciful with a 
text. Saying that a passage of God's Word means 



24 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

what it does not mean is an inexcusable error. He 
should apply strictly scientific principles to the interpre- 
tation of a text. He should: 

1. Ascertain exactly all the facts in the case. 

2. State these with absolute candor. 

S. Draw only those teachings which the facts impart. 
He should faithfully take four steps to discover the 
meaning of the text: 

1. Study the text itself minutely: its words, grammar, 
rhetoric, and figure of speech. 

2. Study the text in its immediate connection in the 
paragraph containing it. The Bible in general is con- 
tinuous writing, not a collection of isolated verses. 

3. Study the text in its larger connections in the book 
containing it. One should be so familiar with the books 
of the Bible, when they were written, their historical 
conditions, the aim and scope of each, that but little 
special study would be called for with any particular 
text. 

4. Study the text in its Scriptural connection. The 
sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments have a 
striking harmony of teaching, and each text must be 
viewed in the light of this harmony. The only kind of 
accommodation ever allowable with a text is where the 
principle clearly presented in the text in one applica- 
tion has, with manifest propriety, another application. 
The preacher should clearly state the reasons for this 
further application. 

Spiritualizing a text is never allowable except by 
distinct New Testament authority. There are, it is true, 
many foreshadowings of Christ in the Old Testament, 
also many Old Testament incidents that seem to have 



HOMILETICS 25 

an allegorical reference to Christ and His people, but it 
is difficult for us to exhaust the wealth of literal meaning 
of these to the men not only of that day but of this. 
Why leave safe for uncertain ground ! 

The New Testament gives examples of such figurative 
usage (John i: 51, viii:56; I. Cor. x:4; Gal. iv: 22-26). 
Whatever the New Testament so uses is clearly allegor- 
ical. That which seems precisely similar to us may be 
allegorical and it may not. Our fancy and desire to make 
a point effective need to be held in check by New Testa- 
ment authority. It is unsafe for us to claim the right to 
find a spiritual sense beyond the literal meaning of a text, 
because Our Savior and the apostle Paul exercised such 
a right. To use such events — e.g., many experiences of 
the Israelites in the wilderness as illustrating Christian 
experiences — is allowable, if we do not hint they were so 
intended. We are to use them, then, as we may use 
events of profane history — as illustrations merely. Since 
the text gives authority to the sermon, is its basis, the 
truth in it should be clear. We are not to bring our 
fancy to the text, to find in it what is not there; we are 
faithfully to set forth the Divine word contained in it, 
its clear, undoubted meaning — this and absolutely noth- 
ing more. The following usages of a text of Scripture 
will illustrate the distinctions drawn above: 

Text (Acts xxvii : 29). They cast four anchors out of 
the stern and wished for the day. 

1. Spiritualizing interpretations. In the storm of temp- 
tation and trial cast out the four spiritual anchors — faith, 
hope, love, and good living. This is abominable. The 
text teaches nothing of the kind. A preacher can make 
anything he pleases of the Scripture on this theory, and 



26 MODEEN PKACTICAL THEOLOGY 

soon the people will lose all respect both for him and for 
the Bible itself. 

2. Accommodation of text. The sailors used all means 
at their disposal and waited. So in all storms assailing 
us we should use all means at our disposal and wait. 
This usage of a text is at least questionable. 

3. Illustration. As they cast out anchors, so we may 
cast out — anything you please — and wait. The only 
question now is about the quality of the illustration, 
not its source. So we could quote the lines of Homer 
describing Ulysses starting out "with oars and with 
sails ? ? to illustrate work and prayer. 

It is most important to use texts properly, not as mere 
starting-points for flights of fancy or for untrained rea- 
soning, but as the sources of the great truths we carefully 
present for the good of the people. 

Sermons may be classed with regard to their 
structure, as (1) Text Sermons, (2) Subject Sermons, 
and (3) Expository Sermons. 

1. Text Sermons. In the structure of a Text Sermon 
the divisions come from the text. There are many evi- 
dent advantages : the text has a vital relation to the 
sermon throughout; variety, freshness, and originality 
of treatment are fostered; and preacher and people are 
trained in the analysis of the Word of God, and grow 
in the knowledge and love of the Bible. 

2. Subject Sermons. In the structure of a Subject Ser- 
mon the text gives the subject, and has no further forma- 
tive force; the divisions arise from the subject. There 
are some advantages in the Subject Sermon: it meets the 
frequent need of a full discussion of a complete doctrine 
or duty, and it may be more logical and tend to unity 



HOMILETICS 27 

of discourse, and thus both preacher and people may be 
trained in reasoning power. The tendencies to lose vital 
connection with the Word of God, and to form a stereo- 
typed plan for all sermons, are incident to this kind of 
sermon structure. 

8. Eocpository Sermons. In the structure of an Exposi- 
tory Sermon, not only the divisions but the details of 
treatment of each division arise from the passage of 
Scripture, while in a Text Sermon these details may 
arise from other sources. 

There are several requisites to effective expository 
sermons: 

1. Unity. The definite topic of the passage must be 
clearly presented, and all the matter must be carefully 
arranged under it. There must be one sermon, not a 
number of little sermons. 

2. Orderly structure. The selection of the most sug- 
gestive and important material must be carefully made, 
and this must be arranged by one's oratorical instinct. 
It must be a carefully prepared sermon, faithfully 
wrought out, and not a hasty talk on a passage of 
Scripture. It must be a sermon, not a commentary. 

8. Keeping the text in the people' s mind. This difficulty 
may be met by having the Bible in the pews, and by 
constructing the sermon so as to give occasional glances 
backward and glimpses ahead. 

4-. Application to present day needs. The sermon is 
Scripture expounded for a purpose. There are many 
advantages possessed by an expository sermon: it meets 
the design of preaching, following the mode of the 
primitive Church; it leads pastor and people to take a 
Scriptural mode of viewing life; it often treats of truths 



28 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

and duties not otherwise easily or gracefully introduced 
in the pulpit, and it lessens the tendency to allegorize 
and accommodate the Scripture in preaching. 

The Expository Sermon should be of the leading Scrip- 
ture passages on particular subjects, and upon whole 
books of the Bible in course. 

All of these three kinds of sermon structures should 
be followed by the preacher. The order of importance 
seems to be (1) Textual, (2) Expository, and (3) Sub- 
ject Sermons. 

Catechism sermons are peculiar to our Eeformed 
Church, tho they may well be adopted by all churches. 

Our Church Constitution requires each pastor to 
preach expository sermons upon the Heidelberg Cate- 
chism, completing the course once in at least every four 
years; and the Catechism is divided into fifty -two Lord's 
Days for that purpose. The Catechism affords a fine 
opportunity for that progressive teaching which is de- 
manded by the principles of pedagogy. It thereby pro- 
motes strong and intelligent convictions, and, as the dis- 
tinctive spirit pervading the whole Catechism from the 
keynote struck in the first question to the last petition 
of the Lord's Prayer is the experience of the believer, it 
also affords a culminating appeal to the feelings and the 
will, thus promoting the deep emotions flowing from 
strong convictions. Catechism sermons should be thor- 
oughly prepared expositions. As the preacher should 
not merely talk upon a passage of Scripture, as he should 
not make a commentary, however learned and scholarly, 
upon such a passage, and call either of these a sermori ; 
so he should avoid doing either thing with a " Lord's Day 
of the Catechism." It should be constructed according 



HOMILETICS 29 

to the principles just noted of expository preaching. 
The following specific suggestions are of value: 

Find out the point or subject of the " Lord's Day ;" state 
it concisely, clearly, and suggestively; then treat it with 
the divisions of the Catechism, selecting such details for 
elaboration, illustration, and appeal as your sermonic 
instinct decides will be best adapted to attain the object 
you have in view — for this kind of sermon, like all 
others, must have not only a subject but an object. 

There is in some churches a dislike of Catechism 
preaching, and some of our ministers have a prejudice 
against it. Both dislike and prejudice frequently arise 
in this, as in other cases, from ignorance, from Cate- 
chism talks and from Catechism commentaries, and from 
never having either heard or tried a Catechism sermon. 
It is safe, however, to say that, where real Catechism 
sermons are preached, both preacher and people are as 
well pleased and as much profited by them as by any 
other kind of sermons, and in many cases far more so — 
they are even regarded the best sermons and waited for 
eagerly. 

Sermons may be classified with regard to their 
substance as (1) Doctrinal, (2) Practical or Moral, 
(3) Historical, and (4) Experimental. 

Doctrinal. A doctrine is the entire teaching of 
the Scripture on any particular subject, such as sin, 
redemption, regeneration, providence, the love of God, 
the Divinity of Christ. 

Doctrinal preaching presents these subjects in a way 
to interest and impress a popular assembly. A great 
doctrine can be presented in one sermon in boldest out- 
line only, and such presentation is frequently needed. 



30 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

It is often needed also to present only a particular part 
or aspect of a doctrine. 

Doctrinal sermons appeal to one of the strongest char- 
acteristics of man: his desire to know, his delight in 
finding out important truths. Science has become 
widely popular and useful through its skilled advocates 
appealing to this characteristic of mankind. The 
preacher is the skilled advocate of Bible truths. If he 
thoroughly knows and heartily loves the doctrines of 
Scripture, he may best meet and supply men's desire to 
know by preaching doctrinal sermons, for the way to 
reach and hold thinking men is to give them great 
truths worth thinking about. The description already 
given of a sermon and of the preacher applies fully to 
doctrinal preaching. The preacher must be convinced 
of a doctrine, know it, if he would convince the judg- 
ment of his hearers. He must see the doctrine, his 
imagination be filled with it, if he would kindle their 
imagination. He must love the doctrine, be moved by 
it, if he would move them. His own conscience must be 
alive to the doctrine, his own will bow down to it, if he 
would arouse the conscience and sway the will of others. 
If the doctrine has possession of the preacher, it will be 
sure to get possession of the people. 

The use of doctrinal sermons is to convert and sanctify 
the soul: to impart the truth so a man knows, to enforce 
the truth so a man feels and acts. The preacher should 
present the great doctrines frequently, so that the people 
shall become well-informed and strong Christians; he 
should present the unpopular doctrines faithfully and ten- 
derly, not shunning a single important truth of God's 
"Word. He should, when it is called for, discuss doctrines 



HOMILETICS 31 

in opposition to errors, neither seeking nor avoiding con- 
troversy, not advertising plausible error but leaving no 
room for it, the mind and heart being filled with truth. 

Moral or practical sermons set forth the duties of 
man to man, individually and socially; they urge the 
cultivation of the virtues proclaimed in the Bible; they 
seek to promote the Kingdom of God as the ideal society 
on earth. 

These subjects formed a prominent part of the preach- 
ing of prophets and apostles and of Our Lord himself; 
they should form a prominent part of our preaching to- 
day. They are based upon the principle that religion is 
an essential part of virtue, and virtue of religion; that 
if a man is religious in one thing he must be in every- 
thing — if on the Sabbath in the church, then on the week- 
days in the family and on the street; that religion is the 
motive power of morality. Such sermons are not to dis- 
place doctrinal sermons, but to flow from them; truth 
exists in order to be practised. Morals must be preached 
not as a substitute for, nor independently of, the Gospel; 
but they should be so presented as to lead all men to 
feel their need of Christ as a Savior, and to stimulate 
those trusting in Christ to live in a way to honor Him. 

Such sermons should, when needed, teach politics, in- 
structing and urging men to be controlled in their polit- 
ical action by Christian principles; they should also, 
when needed, stimulate social reforms, instructing and 
urging men that the teaching and spirit of Christ should 
compel and control all needed reforms in Community, 
State, and Nation. 

Historical sermons show the purpose of God in the 
events of history as revealed in the Bible; they also 



32 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

analyze the character and motives of men, inspired and 
uninspired, good and bad; and they show that all men 
are under the government of God. There are at least 
three reasons to lead us to pay much attention to histor- 
ical preaching: 

1. A person is generally of interest to all. Truths 
personified or invested with personal action are apt to 
interest and impress people. 

2. God chose to reveal Himself to and through men. 
These men convey this revelation to us not as bare state- 
ments, but as pulsating through their lives; their actions 
and words are charged with their feelings. Thus the 
human element in the Scripture must not be neglected. 

3. A very large part of the Bible is history and much 
of it biography ; it forms a great historical picture, 
grouping all its figures and persons around a Supreme 
Person like and yet unlike them all. So such sermons 
become an effective means of preaching Christ. 

Experimental sermons treat of the experiences of 
men in receiving the Gospel and living according to it. 
They make the chief phases of religious experience the 
subject of careful discussion — e.g., conviction of sin, 
conversion, the new life of love and obedience. The 
preacher presents cases found in the Bible and in his 
observation, and may refer to his own experience when 
this is called for and when he can do it modestly. He 
should be careful to avoid making the experience of 
one a standard for all. As with the face, so with the 
soul: the great characteristics are alike, but the features 
differ in many shadings and expressions. Experimental 
sermons are of great importance in stimulating by the 
force of example. 



HOMILETICS 33 

These four kinds of sermons frequently overlap — 
minor morals may often be presented in historical ser- 
mons, doctrines in experimental sermons — still the kinds 
are distinct enough for special consideration. They 
should all be used by each preacher, and the order of 
their importance seems to be that in which they have 
been described. 

Some ministers are often perplexed by the difficulty 
in finding suitable subjects for the two sermons each 
quickly recurring Sunday demands. Frequently much 
precious time is wasted in floundering about in a search 
for them, and then, perhaps, the forced selection is not the 
best that might have been made. In our studies of the 
English Bible we shall form books of texts and books of 
subjects, with sketches of plans of sermons, and such 
books will grow and their value will increase in after 
life. 

In addition, our study of Pedagogy will teach us the 
value of progressive preaching. When each preacher 
comes to consider the needs of the particular church in 
his care, he will map out courses of such sermons to 
supply this need. The special needs arising week by 
week must also be met. If, also, each one has a course 
of Expository preaching on hand, and a course of Cate- 
chism preaching, each Monday morning will bring him 
plenty of excellent subjects, and he will not have to 
waste time in searching for them. 

Forming the plan of a sermon demands careful 
attention. After selecting a text or subject and deter- 
mining the kind of a sermon, the next step is forming 
the plan of the particular sermon. 

The preacher is the architect, the sermon is the build- 



34 MODEEN PKACTICAL THEOLOGY 

ing. The preacher is the general, the sermon is the 
army. 

A sermon is not an accumulation of separate thoughts, 
like a pile of stone, however fine, or a mob of men, how- 
ever strong; but it is a symmetrical body of related 
thoughts. A very important part of the preacher's 
work is organization; he must aim to be a good general, 
a fine architect. One should seek the best plan, not be 
content with the first plan he can think of. If he can 
develop his talent for plan-making into genius he has a 
fine element of a good preacher. Genius, some one has 
said, is ten per cent, talent and ninety per cent. work. 

The bold outlines of a plan should be formed before 
the work of elaborating begins. 

The principal elements of a good plan are: 

1. Unity. The thoughts must evidently belong to one 
subject. 

2. Order. Thought must follow related thought natu- 
rally. 

3. Proportion. Each thought must be treated in due 
proportion with other thoughts to form a symmetrical 
whole. 

The plan should have certain qualities: 

1. It should be simple. There should be no straining 
to produce the startling, or that which can not be grace- 
fully elaborated. 

2. It should be striking. Attention must be awakened 
and kept awake; avoid the commonplace. 

3. It should be fresh — have some element of the novel 
and unexpected. Each sermon should have its own 
suitable plan. The preacher should avoid having one 
plan for all sermons, should avoid a beaten track. 



HOMILETICS 35 

A good plan will be of great advantage to the preacher: 

1. It will aid his invention. Arranging thought sug- 
gests thought. The mind moves along related thoughts 
naturally and strongly. 

2. It will stir his feelings. Feelings are aroused by 
a succession of suitable truths, while they are checked 
by confused thoughts. 

3. It will suggest striking particular thoughts. The 
flashings of genius, and the force of such thoughts in a 
sermon will be increased by having them in their 
proper setting. 

4. It will aid his memory," helping in the delivery of a 
written sermon, and it is absolutely essential to good 
extemporaneous preaching. 

A good plan will also be of great advantage to the 
people: 

1. It will hold the attention, and please them. Dis- 
order confuses and repels, while order charms. 

2. It will quicken the under standing. They will be 
able to follow clearly expressed and well related thought. 

3. It will tend to persuasion. Thoughts and appeals 
following each other in natural order have a cumulative 
effect. 

4. It will foster the remembrance, both of the sermon 
and of its special thoughts and appeals, and so prolong 
its effects. 

The plan of a sermon embraces four distinct parts : 
Introduction, Proposition, Discussion, Conclusion. 

The Introduction should awaken favorable interest 
in the subject. It should have three characteristics: it 
should be short and simple, so as never to weary nor per- 
plex; it should be striking tho modest, exciting interest 



36 MODEEN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

only to keep it alive and growing; and it should be 
appropriate j leading easily and naturally to the subject. 
It is generally suggested by the occasion, the text, or the 
subject, and should be carefully prepared. 

The Proposition is the clear, concise, and suggestive 
statement of the subject. As a rule, it should be frankly 
announced — the people like to know what the preacher 
intends to speak about; it should be so clear and con- 
cise as to be easily held in the memory, and so suggest- 
ive as to awaken and hold attention. 

It may be stated logically; then the discourse must be 
argumentative, reasons being given to sustain the propo- 
sition. Example, "Beligion produces happiness. " Or 
it may be stated rhetorically; then the discourse must be 
descriptive and illustrative. Example, " The happiness 
of religion. ?? 

The Discussion must have movement and force, it 
must be instinct with life. Whatever analysis there is 
must be in order to synthesis, the dividing must be in 
order to uniting, the discussion must be the putting to- 
gether into a complete and living whole of the compo- 
nent parts. The statement of distinctly marked divi- 
sions, while not necessary, is usually of service to make 
the train of thought easily followed by the people, thus 
leading to persuasion, and to compel the preacher to 
completeness of treatment. The divisions or heads 
should not be so many as to bewilder the hearer, nor so 
few as to prevent a climax, and the statement of sub- 
heads should be avoided. 

The essentials of the divisions are these: they must 
divide y no one must be coextensive with the subject; they 
must be distinct, no one must include or overlap another; 



HOMILETICS 37 

they must join naturally, the transition from one to an- 
other must be easy; they must be in proper order, one 
preparing for the next, securing progressive movement; 
they must be exhaustive, no important part left out or 
neglected; they must increase in force, having cumulative 
power and reaching a climax. 

The Conclusion gathers up the force of the sermon in 
a final appeal to the will. Three elements should enter 
into it: 

1. Recapitulation, not of words but of the force of 
arguments and description. 

2. Application, showing how the truth applies to con- 
viction and conduct. If this has been constant in the 
sermon it must now concentrate in the conclusion. 

3. Feeling. The preacher should have his own feel- 
ings greatly excited by the importance of the subject and 
of the issues at stake; he should be sincere here as always; 
he should not be overcome by his feelings, but should 
overcome his people by them; he should not avoid but 
allow himself to become an impassioned orator, urging 
motives and exciting feelings in his people. He should 
strive to arouse feeling, not for its own sake, but always 
to deepen conviction and lead to decision, so making 
a final appeal to the will. 

The conclusion must have these qualities: 

1. It must belong to the subject; must not be general, 
appropriate to every subject, but specific, the peculiar 
appeal to the will of this single subject. 

2. It should be short} feeling can not be held at a 
high point for a long time. 

3. It should be complete and decisive, the best possible 
appeal to the will. 



38 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Great orators spend much care on their conclusions; 
surely preachers should never slight the culmination of 
a sermon. 

The general nature of the conclusion should be 
determined before the detailed composition of the 
sermon is begun, so that every part may be made 
to tend to it ; but the final shape it shall take 
should be left for the accumulated force of the sermon 
to mold. 

The most careful preparation must include the 
largest liberty up to the last moment. "What do I 
purpose to accomplish by this sermon ? " is the question 
which should guide the preacher from the first to the 
last moment of the preparation and delivery of every 
discourse. 

The power of forming a plan of a sermon is cultivated 
by exercise, which, therefore, should be constantly pur- 
sued. The principles of such formation apply to each 
class of sermons that we have mentioned as subject 
classes. A text is here suggested for exercise in each of 
these classes: 

Text Sermon, II. Cor. viii:9. 

Subject Sermon, John xii: 32. 

Expository Sermon, Eom. ii:l-16. 

In each case give: 

1. The introduction; 

2. Tlie proposition; 

S. The discussion, divisions of, etc., including 

climax; 
Jf. The conclusion. 
These are only specimens of many instructive exercises 
in the various subject classes. 



HOMILETIOS 39 

Two processes enter into constructing a sermon: 

1. Invention. The gathering of materials, the getting 
something to say that is worth saying. 

& Style. The manner of presenting materials, the say- 
ing that which is worth saying in a pleasing and force- 
ful way. 

The style should be subordinate to the invention and 
suitable to it; polish is good if applied to a diamond, but 
it is wasted on a pebble. 

The inventive or creative power is developed in 
three ways: 

1. By acquisition-, the gaining stores of knowledge by 
close observation of nature, men, and events, and by the 
careful reading of the best books. We should be great 
readers of the deathless works both of religion and of 
general literature. Great thoughts quicken the mind to 
its best thinking. 

2. By reflection on the value and bearing of the ac- 
quired facts and ideas; not merely thinking the thoughts 
of great thinkers after them, but pointing these in direc- 
tions of which their originators never dreamed, and 
using them as the starting-points of thought purely our 
own. This second mode of development must be the 
inseparable companion of the first. 

3. By exercise in constantly creating sermons. There 
are creative moods when a sermon fairly flashes into 
existence; these become rare if we wait for them, and 
more frequent as our deep interest in our work and our 
will power compel us to form a growing habit of ser- 
monizing. We must cultivate the sermonic instinct of 
incessant observation, reflection, and construction, so 
that every scene, incident, or person met with, and 



40 MODEKN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

every book read, is made to contribute material for 
sermons. 

Gathering materials from the Bible should be 
constantly pursued in at least four ways: 

1. By general reading, becoming familiar with the 
scope of each book, with the historical persons and 
events described, and with the great thoughts of the 
great teachers of all the ages. 

2. By the special study of selected passages, either by 
books or topics, thoroughly and constantly pursued. 

8. By memorizing choice passages, the commands and 
promises of God, and the devotional sayings of the saints 
of old. 

£. By the special study of texts for sermons. The use of 
commentaries should be to stimulate our thought, to find 
out what we can not solve unaided, and to illumine the 
dark places. But we should go to the Bible first, should 
exercise our full powers first, before calling for their aid. 
The commentary should never be a substitute for our 
thinking, but an incentive; think first, then call the best 
commentary to help you to think further and more 
clearly. 

The gathering of materials is of little avail, except as 
a mental exercise, unless they are kept at hand ready for 
use. There are at least three distinct methods of 
storing and arranging sermon materials: 

1. The Spontaneous Method. This cultivates the mem- 
ory and invention through the preacher's reliance 
entirely upon them. In preparing sermons each week 
use up, so far as possible, the results of the week's 
thought and reading. Hold what is left over in reserve 
for some future occasion, to recall as it is needed. 



HOMILETICS 41 

2. The Scientific Method. Clip from papers, and make 
notes of reading and observations on slips of paper. 
Allow these to accumulate for several days. Then re- 
ject the worthless and classify the worthy, and have this 
classification arrange itself alphabetically, either by the 
envelope or desk pigeon-hole system. 

3. The Business Method. Have small note-books — one 
in the pocket, one on the study table, perhaps one in 
the bedroom. Eufus Choate used to retain the bright 
thoughts which visited him in the night-watches by 
lighting a candle and putting them on paper at once. 
Whatever is striking in observation, thought, or read- 
ing enter in one or other book at once, concisely or by 
leading words, with reference to book or circumstances. 
This is the day-book department. Have two other and 
much larger books to be used as the business man's 
ledger-book. One book should be of Classified Subjects. 
The other book one of Texts for Sermons. Once each 
week take time to look over the day-books carefully, re- 
ject all that on second thought seems of little worth, 
gather all worth preserving, and arrange these in one or 
other or both of the ledger-books. 

It is well to keep also a book of Texts and Plans of 
Sermons. In creative moods a suggestive text and sub- 
ject, perhaps an entire plan of a sermon, will flash upon 
us. These should be preserved, and space left in the 
Book of Texts for changes and additions. Then what- 
ever occurs under either of the three methods, and is 
seen to apply to some text or plan of sermon in the 
Book of Texts, should be entered at once in the proper 
place. A system of cross-references will prevent the 
repeated use of some striking incident or thought. 



42 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Plagiarism should be instinctively avoided. He who 
preaches the truth must be true to himself, to others, 
and to his people in the sight of God. Never borrow an 
entire sermon, not even its plan or outline, either with 
or without acknowledgment. It may be ever so much 
better than any you could make, but it is not yours. 
Your duty is to give your thought and experience of 
God's truth to the people, and only by doing this can 
you become a good sermonizer, have a good conscience, 
and be a good man. 

When in your sermon you take the thought of another 
as he has expressed it, you should make full acknowl- 
edgment either in the words " as another has said," or 
by giving the name of the author. But if the thought 
has been worked over and put in new relations, and if 
its form of expression has been materially changed, you 
have then no right to attribute it to another. Your own 
work in both respects should be so thorough as to make 
the thought in its new relation and dress peculiarly 
your own. 

Originality is fostered in three ways: 

1. By being Biblical preachers. The Bible, like nature, 
is exhaustless, and by loving it, studying it, looking at 
it with our own eyes, taking our own views of it, we 
shall catch something of its freshness and fulness. 

2. By placing the thoughts of others in new relations 
and in changed conditions and under our own tests. 
They will thus be changed so that those who started 
them would not recognize them or make any claim to 
them. 

3. By seeking fresh ways of presenting old truths to 
meet the needs and culture of the present day. Biblical 



HOMILETICS 43 

preaching and the absorbing desire to win souls to Christ 
will both foster originality and guard against improper 
sensationalism. 

The three main uses of materials in a sermon are for 
explanation, argument, and illustration. 

Explanation. Preaching ought to be eminently in- 
structive. The people need the practical explanation 
both of truth and of duty. The way of salvation must 
be made plain. Before appeals to come to Christ and 
to follow Him can be effectively presented, Christ must 
be made known, and how to come to Him and to follow 
Him must be explained. The three principal ways of 
explaining a text or subject are: 

1. By definition, which, marks the limits of the subject 
and sets it apart from all others. Here we should be 
positive rather than negative; we should say what the 
text means, not spend time and strength in saying what 
it does not mean — an interminable and thankless task 
resulting only in killing time. It is of great value to 
both preacher and people to know clearly the point of 
the text or subject. 

2. By example from observation. History, especially 
from the Bible, should be apposite to the subject and 
suitable to the audience. 

3. By comparisons, which should be derived from mat- 
ters familiar to the people. 

Explanation should aim to make the Scripture mean- 
ing clear that the sermon may enforce it. The process of 
exegesis should be thorough, but rigidly confined to the 
study; only the results should be brought into the pul- 
pit, and not all the results, but only those which the 
sermon enforces. The narration of Scripture events 



44 MODERN" PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

should be brief and vivid; here also only those features 
of the events should be selected that the sermon is to 
impress upon the congregation. Many narratives in the 
pulpit are too long drawn out and needlessly minute. 

Description of Scripture scenes should stimulate the 
imagination to see them; but this, too, should always 
be subordinate to the purpose of the sermon. Try to 
see clearly and describe suggestively, learn to paint word 
pictures effectively, but never for the sake of the pic- 
tures, only for the desired impress of the sermon. 

Argument. There ought to be a great deal of argu- 
ment in preaching. It meets man's natural love for 
reasoning, and it is needed to convince of truth and to 
deepen such conviction. It also guards the preacher 
against relying wholly upon authoritative assertion and 
impassioned appeal. The preacher should be an able 
advocate of the cause of Christ, he should argue for 
Him in a way to convince and persuade. 

We are not to argue, however, simply from the love 
of it or to show off our reasoning powers, but only for 
the establishment of important truth not generally 
acknowledged. The existence of God, the supremacy 
of man's moral nature, and the authority of Scripture 
are so generally acknowledged that they may usually be 
made the basis rather than the subject of argument. 
The spirit which pervades argument should always be a 
friendly one. The proposition to be upheld should 
always be stated in a way to awaken favor, not opposi- 
tion, and this attitude should be maintained through the 
whole argument; the aim of the preacher is to convince, 
not to stir the mind to resist conviction. 

We should also cultivate the spirit of fairness, and 



HOMILETICS 45 

should never attempt to evade the rule that the burden 
of proof is upon him who alleges. The preacher should 
be fair above the slightest suspicion, since his position in 
th& pulpit does not allow an immediate answer to be 
made to his argument. He should never take advantage 
of this position or abuse it. 

It is important to be familiar with the principal kinds 
of arguments — at any rate, their usual features — and 
with the laws of reasoning upon which they are based. 

The a priori argument is from cause to effect. The 
rule is, there must be sufficient power in the cause to 
produce the effect, and there must be nothing to hinder 
its operation in the case under consideration. 

E.g. The a priori argument for miracles: 

1. God's power is sufficient. 

2. The occasion is worthy. 

3. The miracles in question are in harmony with 

the character of God and the nature of the 
occasion. There is good reason for them. 

The a posteriori argument is from effect to cause. 
The same rule applies as in a priori argument. 

E.g. The a posteriori argument for the existence of 
God. The existence of nature, with its myriad forces 
and laws and of mental and moral beings, finds a suffi- 
cient and worthy cause in God alone. 

A deductive argument is from generals to particu- 
lars. The rule is, the general truth must be accepted, 
the inference of the particular truth must be carefully 
made, and when possible it should be compared with 
well-known facts. 

E.g. All Scripture is true. This particular doctrine 
is from Scripture. Therefore, this doctrine is true. It 



46 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

strengthens the argument to compare the particular doc- 
trine with facts in nature and with other Scripture. 
Much preaching is of this character. 

An inductive argument is from particulars to gen- 
erals. The rule is, the observation should be carefully 
made and of a sufficient number of particulars, and then 
the inference of a general or common truth should be 
clear and beyond question. 

This is popular in use, but there is grave danger of 
imperfect observation and hasty judgment. E.g. Several 
pastors have gained a favorable hearing of the Gospel 
with several men by smoking with them. Therefore, 
smoking is an attractive habit of a pastor and a means 
of grace. The observation is not thorough, the pastors 
may have had other charms; nor is it wide enough, 
either of pastors or of men; and so the judgment is hasty 
and defective. 

The argument from analogy is at best a supposition 
and needs to be confirmed by other arguments. The 
rule is, that it becomes strong when it is based, not on 
resemblance of properties, but on correspondence of 
relation. 

E.g. The process of growth which prevails in vege- 
table, animal, and mental life may be supposed by a just 
analogy to prevail in the next higher grade of life — the 
spiritual life of the individual and of society. 

The argument from testimony must observe the 
rules of evidence in courts of law; it depends upon the 
character and clearness of the witnesses. The witnesses 
must be truthful, intelligent, must have observed care- 
fully, and must be independent. The more improbable 
is the thing to be proved the stronger must be the evi- 



HOMILETICS 47 

dence. The testimony of witnesses should be strength- 
ened by circumstantial evidence when possible. 

E.g. The resurrection of Christ is attested by such 
witnesses, and by facts that can not be otherwise ac- 
counted for. 

The different kinds of arguments should not be mixed: 
one should be finished before another is begun. The 
order in which they should be used is either: 

1. That of preparation, one leading to and preparing 
for the other, or 

2. That of strength, the weaker followed by stronger 
until a climax is reached. 

The Scripture argument should always have the place 
of honor. If it must be introduced at the beginning, as 
is often the case, then bring in the other arguments as 
tributary to it, or bring it in again by recapitulation as 
a climax and enlarge upon it at the last. 

Refutation should be very carefully used. The best 
way to refute an error is to fill the mind with the oppo- 
site truth so there is no room for it, without so much as 
mentioning the error. You are not seeking to acquire a 
reputation as a reasoner, but to keep your people from 
error; it is not advisable, therefore, simply for purposes 
of academic refutation, to mention an error which may be 
unknown to many, and so, perhaps, spread it. If you are 
forced to mention the error, state it fairly and deal with 
it strongly. Show that it necessarily leads to an ab- 
surdity — "reductio ad absurdum" — or that it is incon- 
sistent with the views of the people addressed — u ad 
hominuni" — or take the offensive, and show that the 
supposed error is a proof of the truth. 

E.g. The discrepancies of the Gospel narratives are 



48 MODEBN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

of such slight details as to show the independence of the 
witnesses agreeing upon the great facts. 

Illustrations are of great value, particularly with a 
popular audience, and they are acceptable to the most 
cultured. There should be enough illustration in every 
sermon to give proper luster to it. The number and 
character of the illustrations should always depend upon 
the requirements of the subject; they are not ends in 
themselves, but means to an end. 

The preacher deals with spiritual subjects which it is 
often difficult to make clear to the people. He of all 
public speakers has the most need of choice illustrations. 
Our Savior, the greatest of all preachers, made great use 
of illustration to render plain and to enforce spiritual 
truths. Generally one illustration for a particular truth 
is enough; from many at hand select the best rather than 
give several. A sermon should never be overloaded 
with illustrations. The main uses of illustrations are: 
(1) to explain that which needs explanation; (2) to 
adorn when the subject needs to be made attractive with 
beauty; (3) to enforce an argument, adding to it a kind 
of proof; (4) to arouse the feelings, but only for the 
purposes of the sermon; (5) to awaken the attention 
which may have become wearied; and (6) to fix the 
truth in the memory by means of the illustration. It is 
well to ask of each truth presented in the sermon if it 
needs illustration for any of these reasons, and to seek to 
supply the need. It is well also to think by means of 
illustrations, thus making clear spiritual truths to our 
minds and impressing them upon our own hearts. Illus- 
trations which have served this purpose for ourselves 
will be apt to serve others as well. 



HOMILETICS 49 

It may help to gather illustrations to glance at some 
of the fields where they abound, and where the observ- 
ing mind and the sermonic instinct will find selection a 
pleasure. 

Human Life. The tender and the homely incidents 
and feelings are often most effective. 

History — especially Biography. Here the human ele- 
ment is large, and so of great interest. Care should be 
taken to be accurate and free from exaggeration. If 
the history of the day or of recent times be used, care 
should be taken not to arouse popular prejudices, 
which may set the people against the truth you seek to 
commend. 

Anecdotes. These have been fearfully abused; still, 
they have excellent qualities. They should be true if 
told as true. A made-up anecdote may be true to 
nature and effective, but its fictitious nature should be 
confessed. There is greatest value in a finely imagined 
incident. We may not draw such fine pictures or make 
such striking parables as our Savior did, but we should 
surely follow His example in doing the best in our 
power. 

Nature. The love of nature will gather many illustra- 
tions of spiritual truth from God's book of material 
truths; these often seem to be spiritual truths made 
visible. 

The Sciences. It is well to have a general knowledge 
of the sciences, and to be well acquainted with some 
particular one or more of them. Splendid and inviting 
illustrations abound on every hand; but one who uses a 
scientific truth should be accurate in stating it, and often 
there is need that he should sufficiently describe it to 



50 MODEKN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

make his people see the force and beauty of its illustra- 
tive power. 

Literature and Art One should be a lover of the best 
literature and art, familiar with the best fiction and 
poetry. Thus his own imagination will be cultivated, 
his own sense of the beautiful made keen, and his mind 
stored with fine illustrations. 

Poetry is particularly effective if rendered well, but 
the quotation should be short. Painting and statuary, 
if well described, afford fine illustrations. 

Scripture. The incidents of the Scripture should be so 
familiar to the preacher that this rich field is to him 
the constant source of suitable illustrations. 

This glance at these many fields will be of value to 
stimulate us to seek great variety in our use of illustration. 
We will be guarded against the frequent use of anecdotes 
or any other special kind if we recognize how varied and 
rich are the treasures of illustrations that are open to us. 

Exercises. Find an illustration for each head of this 
sermon plan: 

Introduction. The joy of saving. 

Proposition. Salvation from sin. 

Divisions: (a) Salvation planned in heaven. 

(&) Salvation executed by Christ on earth. 

(c) Salvation applied by the Holy Spirit 
to the believer. 

(d) Salvation manifested in the life of the 
believer. 

(e) Salvation completed in glory. 
Conclusion. The blessedness of being saved. 

The study of sermons of the great preachers is com- 
mended, to see how they think and feel, and how they 



HOMILETICS 51 

arrange their materials to accomplish their purpose. 
But the study of the masterpieces should not lead us to 
be copyists either in form or substance, but should 
stimulate in us our individuality. An excellent exercise 
is to take the text of some great sermon, and do our best 
with a sermon on that text; then compare our sermon 
with the masterpiece. We suggest for exercise in the 
classroom a few such sermons from 

Beecher, Brooks, Spurgeon, and Bobertson. 
The object of the sermon is of supreme importance. 
The attention we pay to selecting a subject, to forming a 
plan, and to gathering and arranging the materials of a 
sermon is all for the sake of the object. A sermon that 
has no object is fatally defective, is no sermon at all. 
"What do I intend to do with this sermon?" is the 
question which should direct every step from start to 
finish. This controlling purpose should be one the 
Savior approves. To seek to entertain the people with 
a fine literary production, to awaken their admiration 
by eloquence, to charm them with deep thinking and 
strong reasoning, are purposes which will not bear His 
scrutiny now or at the Judgment Day. We should 
never allow ourselves to drift toward such objects. The 
object of every sermon should be either to lead souls to 
trust in Christ, or to lead them to grow like Him in some 
virtue and obey Him in some duty. There should be but 
one object, one controlling purpose, to each sermon; this 
should not be tacked on to the end, a a word in con- 
clusion," but should dominate the whole sermon, its 
plan, its materials, the whole treatment; not merely 
here and there should appear "a word of application," 
but the whole sermon should be an application of truth 



52 MODEEN PKACTICAL THEOLOGY 

for a purpose. There may, of course, be related objects 
to the dominating one, but the main purpose should 
have full possession of preacher and sermon throughout. 
This one purpose in a sermon should be the purpose God 
has in sending His messenger to the people at that par- 
ticular time, one we can bring to God in prayer, one we 
are sure the Holy Spirit fills with His power. 

There should be many purely evangelistic sermons; 
these should not be exclusively or even mainly given at 
the evening service, but should be delivered also in the 
morning, when the whole congregation is present. Mem- 
bers of the church need to renew their allegiance, and 
to be impressed with the duty of leading others to 
Christ, and they require direction in that work. Be- 
sides, members of the church should constantly bring 
their children and their friends and acquaintances to 
the morning service. So, also, the evening service should 
not be purely evangelistic. Members of the church 
should be encouraged to attend, for oftentimes a strong 
presentation of a Christian virtue, a feature of the 
Christlikeness, forms an incentive to the believer as 
well as an appeal to the unconverted. 

The minister should pay the same attention to evening 
service as to the morning, and should present as large a 
variety of both his subjects and objects at that service. 
In both classes of objects the final appeal is to the will, 
to bring it into complete and loving allegiance to 
Christ. The mind must be addressed and convinced, but 
convictions of the mind must become principles of action. 
The feelings must be addressed, tho not for themselves 
alone; they are solicitors of the will — the heart is often 
the main appeal to the will. The conscience is to be 



HOMILETICS 53 

addressed, that it may exercise all its influence upon the 
will. Appeals to memories, kindling of the imagina- 
tion, presentation of motives — all are to be brought to 
bear upon the will. Information of how duties are to be 
performed helps the will to command their performance. 
We should never think of a sermon as an end in itself, 
but only as a means to an end; this object is the one for 
which our Lord sent us out to preach, and for it we must 
account to Him alone. 

The object of the sermon must, therefore, be charged 
with the personality of the preacher, as a messenger of 
God bringing His message to the people. The preacher 
should never proclaim a truth he does not believe; 
should never strive to awaken feeling he does not feel; 
should never urge to a duty he does not try to do; should 
never seek to bring his hearers to a decision which he 
himself does not decide. He should preach to himself 
successfully before he can hope for success in preaching. 

His preaching must be in line with his experience. Of 
course he is to hold up the loftiest ideals, but these 
ideals should differ from his experience only in degree, 
never in kind. He must not be standing still, or pro- 
ceeding in the opposite direction, or sheering off to one 
side; he must be going in line with the ideal, and as 
close to it as possible. This rule of absolute sincerity in 
preaching makes the preacher one man — the same man 
in his closet, in his study, in the pulpit, and among the 
people. 

The one who has an object in preaching, and who 
devotes himself entirely to it in each sermon, may expect 
results from his preaching in lives changed to Christ and 
consecrated to Him. It will be his great privilege and 



54 MODERN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

loving duty to follow such sermons with personal influ- 
ence directed to the same object. Oftentimes people are 
impressed with God's claim on them, and are ready to 
decide to follow Christ, or to do some particular Chris- 
tian duty, but no step is at once taken, and the impres- 
sion passes in the rush of daily life. An after-meeting 
following the sermon, or a call upon the pastor by his 
invitation, or a call from the pastor, or some other step 
committing the one impressed to the desired course, may 
be the turning-point in his life from the world to Christ, 
or from the state of a dormant Christian to that of 
an active one; and the minister who preaches with a 
purpose to bring souls to a decision will devise some 
appropriate means consistent with the solemnity and 
importance of the matter of helping his hearers to form 
that decision. 

The style of a sermon is that of oratory rather 
than of literature. A book is to be read; an involved 
construction, a fine shade of meaning, a nice distinction, 
a delicate charm, a rare word, may require a sentence to 
be read again that one may pause and meditate. On 
the other hand, a sermon is to be heard; its meaning and 
feeling must be caught at once; while there may be long 
balanced sentences, these should be of a construction 
that can be easily grasped as rendered by the orator's 
voice. Eeligious enthusiasm is an excellent subject for 
a sermon as well as an essay, but the essay in the 
Spectator on that subject by Addison, the great master of 
literary English, would not be a good sermon. 

There is much truth in the saying of the great English 
orator, Fox: "A speech that reads well is never a good 
speech. ' ' Beading and hearing are such different mental 



HOMILETICS 55 

acts that oue production will not do for* both. A fine 
literary production is out of place in the pulpit; on 
the other hand, a fine sermon seldom reads well. A 
preacher who tries to preach literary sermons will be 
apt to fail both in literature and in preaching. Each 
preaeher should aim to have the style of direct address. 
It should have at least these three qualities: it should 
be clear, strong, and pleasing, both in the choice of words 
and in the formation of sentences. Two things should 
never be admitted to the pulpit: bad words and poor 
grammar; vulgar and slang words and careless construc- 
tion of sentences should be instinctively avoided. The 
individuality of the preacher will express itself not only 
in the substance but in the style of the sermon. 

The style of address will differ also in respect to 
whether the address is made to the intellect, to the feel- 
ings, or to the will Still, whatever the individuality of 
style or the peculiarity of address, these three qualities 
should always be present: Clearness, Strength, and Per- 
suasiveness. 

The style must be .clear, suitable at once to the loftiest 
thought and to the lowliest understanding, suitable to 
convey the thought from the preacher to the audience; 
for the choice of words and their number and grouping 
should have sole reference to the audience. Thus, while 
we may talk about " phenomena, ? ? we should never use 
the word to any but a highly educated audience; while 
we may speak objectively and subjectively, and may 
reason inductively or deductively, we should never 
inform our hearers that we are doing so. We must 
always have enough words for our thinking and feeling — 
as our thoughts and feelings are rich and wide, our 



56 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

vocabulary will be large; but in the sermon we must 
choose only those words familiar to the people. People 
cannot use a dictionary while listening to the sermon. 

The style should be strong. Weak words and vacillat- 
ing sentences are out of place. If you are not sure of a 
thing, do not say it; if you are sure of it, say it in strong 
Anglo-Saxon words. 

The style should be pleasing. It should not repel but 
attract; it should have the charm of harmony , of beauty, 
of persuasion. If there must be denunciation, let it be 
strong, for it is of the hateful; but preaching mainly is 
of the beautiful and the lovely, and should therefore be 
pleasing. 

The dramatic is often in place, strong and pleasing and 
striking; the poetic is often in place, the beautiful 
thought in beautiful form. The Prophets, the great 
preachers of the Old Testament, abounded in poetic and 
dramatic style, thus moving the hearts of their hearers. 
The style is not an end in itself, but a means to the end 
of reaching the people. 

There are four ways of cultivating the oratorical 
style. 

1. The practise of thinking clearly, strongly, and beauti- 
fidly. The substance will form a garb suitable for itself. 
A confused and involved style generally comes from con- 
fused and involved thinking; the reverse is equally true. 

2. Careful and constant translation of the classics. This 
seems to have been a favorite method of the great 
secular orators. Cicero translated Greek every day. 
Many English orators have pursued the practise — 
Brougham, Canning, Curran, Chatham, Pitt, Fox, Pal- 
merston, and Gladstone. Eufus Choate, the ' ' Master of 



HOMILETICS 57 

Juries/' translated Latin or Greek every day. The elo- 
quent Senator Hoar recommends this as the most impor- 
tant thing for a public speaker. The great classics ex- 
press thought with precision and beauty. To grasp their 
thought and then express it as accurately and beau- 
tifully in our English, gives command of the riches of 
our language and of the forms of its construction. 

3. Beading the best books, especially those of public 
address, often reading aloud. One becomes familiar 
with the sound of words and their groupings by the 
great masters of speech. It is frequently the case, how- 
ever, that the great sermons and orations found in books 
are not as they were spoken, but as they were afterward 
polished by their authors for publication; still, the polish 
has not entirely spoiled them. 

The best book to read aloud for this purpose is prob- 
ably Shakespeare. His plays were written by the great 
master of our noble English tongue to be spoken on the 
stage, and one can not read it well without speaking it. 
Our ordinary conversation also should be clear, strong, 
and pleasing, and so serve as a constant cultivation of 
the style of public address. 

If. Imagining the presence of an audience as we write, 
and speaking the sentence aloud as in their presence 
before we write it. This leads to constructing sentences 
easily understood as heard rather than as read. 

There are three methods of preparing a sermon 
which affect its delivery: 

1. Writing it in full, and reading it from the manu- 
script. 

2. Writing it in full, and speaking it from memory. 

3 Thinking the sermon out without much writing, 



58 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

and speaking it with words chosen at the time of speak- 
ing — that is, extempore. 

These frequently overlap. The preacher from manu- 
script may have much in his memory. The extempora- 
neous preacher may have many passages memorized. 

The individuality of the preacher will prevail in the 
choice of these methods. While they are open to us all, 
we are to decide which is the best for each one. Each 
method has numbered among its followers many excel- 
lent preachers. Still, among the three there is certainly 
one which may be said to be generally the best; each of 
the others may be exceptionally the best for peculiar 
minds. 

The extemporaneous — that is, a well-prepared oration 
or sermon delivered in words chosen at the time of 
speaking — has, without doubt, been the most widely used 
and the most effective. The great Greek and Eoman 
orators spoke generally in this way; so also the great 
English, French, and American orators in the Senate 
and at the bar and in political mass meetings. The 
great orations of Moses and the Prophets in the Old Tes- 
tament, and of our Lord and His Apostles in the New 
Testament, were given in this form at length; in the 
Bible we have simply the outline sketches of them. 

The preaching in the early Church was generally of 
this kind; the early triumphs of Christianity were largely 
its effects. The preaching of the missionaries of the 
Cross in heathen lands to-day is generally of this kind. 
The preaching of evangelists in Christian lands is gener- 
ally of this kind, certainly so with the most effective 
exhorters. It has been the kind of preaching that has 
prevailed generally in times of revivals. 



HOMILETICS 59 

Written sermons read to the people came in general 
use in England in the time of Henry VIII. , and have 
prevailed since in the Episcopal Church. But in 
other lands the preaching of the leaders of the Protest- 
ant Eeformation was generally extemporaneous, and in 
England, too, with the above exception; and that pre- 
vailing in the larger number of Protestant churches to- 
day the wide world over is the same kind. In choosing 
which method we shall pursue, this splendid history 
commends the extemporaneous to us. 

In making this choice, we should also bear in mind 
that the object of preaching is to reach through the un- 
derstanding, the feelings, and the conscience to the will, 
constraining it to decide for Christ and his service. 
"Which sermon, the extemporaneous or written, is best 
adapted for this purpose ! 

The style of preaching must be oratorical, the style of 
public address, rather than literary. Which method is 
the best to secure this style ! 

There are dangers connected with each method. 

The one choosing to write his sermons should guard 
against the three dangers connected with that method: 

1. Bangers connected ivith ivriting itself. The saying, 
u Writing makes an accurate man/' is deceptive; it is 
not the amount of writing, but the kind, that develops 
accuracy. A great amount of writing tends to make one 
hasty, superficial, and slovenly both in thought and in 
expression. On the other hand, to write slowly and 
carefully takes a great deal of time; so also to write rap- 
idly, and follow with careful correction. If the amount 
must be two sermons a week, it becomes difficult to 
secure the requisite time; yet it is only this kind of 



60 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

writing that makes one accurate in thought and ex- 
pression. 

2. Dangers connected with our time. There must be a 
great deal of time given to reading and thinking if we 
are to have anything worth saying in our sermons. 
There must be a great deal of time given to pastoral 
work if we are to follow up the sermons effectively. 
There must be vigor in the act of preaching, and Satur- 
day should be a day of rest, that we may have fresh 
strength for the pulpit, and certainly writing should not 
be continued into Saturday night. 

Besides, the act of writing should never be allowed to 
be the time limit of our thinking. If we think only as 
fast as we write we will not be able to go very far into 
the subjects of two sermons each week. 

S. Dangers connected ivith preaching written sermons. 
One danger arises from a wrong estimate of the nature 
of a sermon. A preacher is apt to think his sermon 
finished when he drops his pen, when in reality it is not 
yet fairly begun. To rely upon having a written sermon 
to escape nerve strain in the pulpit is to lose all possi- 
bility of ever becoming a preacher. One must be so 
familiar with his sermon that he can preach it; to fail 
in this is to fail in everything. One must be so absorbed 
by his sermon that he can not help preaching it. To 
have to keep the eyes upon the written page, to blunder 
over it and get lost whenever one ventures to become 
earnest in speech, to be content listlessly to read a ser- 
mon, is an offense to God and man. One of the evi- 
dences of the divine institution of the Christian church is 
that it has been able to continue its existence under the 
burden of so much of this kind of so-called preaching. 



HOMILETICS 61 

These three dangers may be guarded against by a 
constant and determined will. 

There is one danger that seems incident to the 
method itself. The written sermon is a fixed thing. 
The following situation will often occur: The plan has 
been formed early in the preparation, it has been care- 
fully worked out, but now in the closing hours, the 
mind being filled with the subject and intense in its 
action, an entirely new plan or mode of treatment arises, 
and it is so much better than the one used that the 
written sermon ready for the pulpit seems dull and 
lifeless. 

One may attempt to change a part of the treatment by 
inserting extemporaneous passages, but this is rarely 
successful, the two methods being so different in mental 
action; it is a kind of back draft liable to cause more 
smoke than flame ; but there seems no possibility of 
changing the whole plan of the sermon. 

The old and poor sermon must be preached as it is, 
and the new and good one on the same theme should be 
saved for some distant time. 

The preacher choosing to preach extemporaneously 
needs to guard against the two dangers of that method. 

1. The danger of insufficient preparation. The saying, 
" Speaking makes a ready man/' may deceive one 
to his destruction. A flow of words can never com- 
pensate for a stagnation of thought. The readiness 
must be of thinking and feeling as well as of speaking. 
The gift of utterance should be relied upon only when 
one makes earnest endeavor to have something worth 
uttering. But u words, words, words, " and only words, 
flow from the pen sometimes as well as from the tongue, 



62 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

and good preaching, whatever the method, does not arise 
from mental and spiritual laziness. 

2. The danger of inelegant speech. It is not enough to 
have something to say worth saying; it must be said 
forcefully and elegantly. Improper words, careless con- 
struction of sentences, incomplete expression of thought 
or feeling, and embarrassed hesitancy or repetition must 
be avoided. But here, also, the danger of these inele- 
gancies is not confined to extemporaneous speaking. One 
must pay the price of a good style by constant, careful 
work. The exercises already recommended, and others 
that may be adopted, must be diligently pursued. 
Having a good diction, and a clear, strong, and pleasing 
style, acquired and maintained by diligent exercise, the 
use of that style in its finest degree will come extempo- 
raneously to the speaker who is devoting all his power 
to stirring his people to lofty thought and noble en- 
deavor. 

There are certain great advantages of extem- 
poraneous preaching, if we have the right idea of its 
nature and adhere closely to it in practise. Extem- 
poraneous preaching requires carefully prepared thought 
and elaborate treatment, but leaves the incidental 
changes of treatment, the introduction of new thoughts, 
and the choice of language to the suggestion of the time 
of speaking. The advantages of it are the great oppor- 
tunities it gives to an earnest man. These are at least 
three. 

1. The opportunity for more thorough preparation. The 
preacher is saved the time and labor of penmanship. 
He cultivates the habit of thinking more rapidly than 
he can write. He has more time for general and special 



HOMILETICS 63 

study, for reading and meditation. He can carry the 
preparation of his sermons with him in his walks and 
talks, in his recreation and general work; he has more 
time for pastoral work, and can make it tributary to the 
sermons. He may form the general plan of the sermon 
early in the week, may take notes of his thoughts as they 
arise under the proper heads, may make all desired 
changes in arrangement, and introduce new thoughts up 
until the moment of entering the pulpit. He should, I 
think, take Saturday for a rest day, and not think about 
his sermons on that day. On Sunday morning he should 
spend an hour or two in his study, giving his entire 
mind to the review of what he intends to do in the pul- 
pit. The whole service, especially the sermon, should, 
as far as possible, absorb his attention. Even his selec- 
tion of Scripture readings for the pulpit, and of hymns, 
the general preparation for public prayers, etc., should 
have been made before Friday night. He should excite 
himself mentally and spiritually. 

2. The opportunity for thought and feeling in the act of 
speaking. "With all the freshness and strength from 
Saturday's rest, with all the consciousness of abundant 
material well arranged, with all the solemn earnestness 
of the hour of public worship, he now stands before the 
people to advocate the claim of God upon them. His 
mind will be filled with the subject, quickly responsive to 
the interest of the people, and excited to its brightest 
thoughts; his memory will have at hand its rich treas- 
ures; his imagination will see the finest scenes; his 
emotions will glow with fervor; the prepared thought 
and appeals will be tingling with intense life, and the 
new thoughts and feelings will fall into their proper 



64 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

places; and the living sercnon, charged with the life of the 
preacher, will make its impress upon the lives of the 
people. 

Then, too, his reliance upon the presence and power 
of the Holy Ghost should be continuous through all the 
preparation, and should culminate in the pulpit. The 
true preacher feels that he is a messenger of God, and 
that the Savior is with him; and he should be most 
keenly conscious of and responsive to the Divine help in 
the act of preaching. 

3. The opportunity for natural speaking. The preacher 
having a written sermon, if he does not recite it from 
memory, is apt to speak artificially, because of being con- 
fined by the sermon. The reading with the eye and the 
speaking with the voice are separate actions of the mind, 
and conflict somewhat with natural speech. One has at 
times to take the eye from the audience and place it 
upon the paper; he bends down the head a little, thereby 
compressing the throat; he is compelled to stand behind 
the desk and speak over it; there is apt to be an awk- 
wardness of movement and a strained tone of voice, re- 
sulting in what is called the pulpit manner and the pul- 
pit tone. The one who speaks extemporaneously may 
stand out on the platform in contact with the audience, 
may keep his eyes upon the people, may speak with 
head erect, giving the organs of speech free play, and 
will be apt to use the tones of voice which naturally ex- 
press his thoughts and feelings; he may, at any rate, give 
himself entirely to the one act of speaking. 

The two methods, written and extemporaneous, are so 
radically different, both in preparation and in speaking, 
that it is a rare case for a preacher to become a master 



HOMILETICS 65 

of both. It is generally unwise to try to have both 
kinds, one for preaching in the morning, the other for 
evening, or to combine the two methods in one sermon, 
or to think of pursuing one for a few years and then try- 
ing the other. 

I advise the extemporaneous method. Choose it 
at once, pursue it exclusively, and determine to be a 
master of it. At any rate, choose the one kind or the 
other, and then stick to it and make the most of it. In 
order that students may know their powers and choose 
wisely, we have in our course the exercise of extempo- 
raneous preaching. Each student has a text assigned to 
him one week before preaching, is confined to the use of 
not more than two hundred written words in prepara- 
tion, and is required to have no notes in use in the act of 
preaching. 

The art of natural speaking seems a contradiction 
of words, until we reflect that our natural powers gener- 
ally require training to reach their best quality. It is 
so with walking, talking, thinking, feeling, and it is so 
with speaking. No one is thoroughly trained in any 
power until he forgets the process of training and uses 
the power spontaneously; if one thinks about his walking 
he is apt to walk awkwardly, or, rather, artificially. Ar- 
tificiality in speaking does not come from too much train- 
ing, but from too little; one must be cultured in speaking, 
as in walking, until he can speak spontaneously, without 
the thinking of the process; he has then the art of speak- 
ing naturally. Whatever an orator's natural endow- 
ment, he can excel only as he cultivates his gift, and 
those who have lesser gifts have the more need of culti- 
vation. It is with this as with all God's gifts: we are 



66 MODEEN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

not to wrap it in a napkin and let it lie idle; we are to 
make tlie best use of it for its increase for His service. 
Each one should take the utmost pains to cultivate his 
natural powers of speaking to their highest efficiency; he 
should begin as early in life as possible, and should train 
himself so constantly and persistently that at length he 
has them fully at his command; and he should maintain 
this mastery of himself by all needed exercise through- 
out his preaching life. 

There are four departments of this training re- 
quiring his constant attention. 

1. Articulation. This requires only the quantity and 
quality of voice absolutely needed to make the words 
easily heard and distinguished by the whole audience. 
It is a good plan to speak to those in the last pew. The 
preacher with a message from God must speak loudly 
and clearly enough to be easily understood by all. This 
is the first requisite. His pronunciation of words should 
be correct according to the best popular standards, 
avoiding the fastidious and peculiar. He should culti- 
vate a distinct and pleasing articulation. Never strain 
the voice by attempting to fill spaces too large for you. 
In such case speak as loudly and distinctly as you can 
do easily, try to expel the voice against the lower front 
teeth, but never shout or scream. Avoid the falsetto, 
and speak directly to the farthest auditor you can reach. 

2. The tone of voice. This is all the remaining power 
of the voice after complete articulation is secured, all 
the music and charm that can be added to distinct enun- 
ciation. There are two general tones; these are distin- 
guished as the conversational tone and the oratorical tone. 
The conversational tone should be the basis of preaching. 



HOMILETICS 67 

The perfection of public speaking is talking to people 
earnestly. The tone prevailing should be that of earnest 
and serious conversation with a number of people in a 
large room; you speak naturally, as one who expects to 
be fully understood. In this there is much opportunity 
for the ordinary swing and rhythm of oratory, for the 
play of fancy and the touch of feeling. Having this 
basis of conversational tone, if you become enraptured 
with your subject and soar into the oratorical tone you 
have something to soar from, and the flight being over, 
you have something to come back to. You have had your 
vision, and have given it to others; and now you again 
talk to them earnestly, as in conversation. 

Tones of voice are also to be distinguished according 
to the psychological character of the speech. There 
are three things to be expressed in speaking — thought,' 
feeling, and will — and there are tones of voice appropriate 
to each. 

(a) The intellectual tone is used for the clear statement 
of truth; we use it instinctively as Paul must have used 
it in saying, "God that made the world and all things 
therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and earth, 
dwelleth not in temples made with hands. " 

(b) The emotional tone is that appropriate to feeling^ 
we can hardly use David's words in any other tone: " O 
my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God 
I had died for thee! O Absalom, my son, my son! " 

(c) The will tone expresses determination. We instinct- 
ively use it as we say with Joshua: "But as for me and 
my house, we will serve the Lord." To mix these tones, 
or to try to exchange them, as in the instances cited, 
mars expression and offends taste. To use them natu- 



68 MODEEN PKACTICAL THEOLOGY 

rally will guard against monotony and give a pleasing 
variety to speech, provided in the speech are these three 
elements: thought, feeling, and will. 

Monotony of speech frequently arises from monotony 
of ideas. When there is a rich variety of ideas, natural 
speech will express them in the appropriate variety of 
tones. 

8. Posture. The dress of the preacher should never 
be peculiar, should not draw attention to itself, nor in 
any way hamper him; generally the clerical garb, the 
scholar's gown, and all jewelry should be avoided. 
The speaker should not be partly hidden; he should 
stand fully seen by the audience; if his position is 
by the side of the desk, he should be far enough away 
to avoid touching it or leaning upon it. Generally he 
should stand still or nearly so, not move from side to 
side; while he is trying to secure one part of the audi- 
ence, he may lose the side he leaves, and this shifting 
indicates lack of control of himself. There is a lan- 
guage in the position of the body, and if one has such 
mastery of it as to be unconscious of himself, and has 
ideas swaying him, the posture, with its slight, uncon- 
scious changes, will clearly convey his message to the 
people. The head should be held erect and firm; 
shaking the head indicates weakness rather than 
strength. The eyes should look not at the ceiling or 
the gallery, but at the people; not at a particular person, 
but generally to those farthest away, for you want your 
words to reach them — then those near by will hear. The 
eyes should rest upon those to whom you are speaking, 
and occasionally look at those near by. 

4. Gesture. All the action of the body beyond pos- 



HOMILETICS 69 

ture is gesture, particularly the movement of the arms 
and hands. A preacher should have such complete 
control of hands and arms that they spontaneously 
express his thoughts and feelings. Fewness of gestures 
frequently indicates fewness and weakness of ideas. 
Pacing from side to side of the platform and a multi- 
plicity of gestures indicate an excitement too great for 
the speaker; he is mastered by it rather than the master 
of it, and so he fails to master his audience. 

But there should be such a variety and strength of 
ideas that they use the arms and hands to express them- 
selves just as they use the tones of voice — naturally and 
spontaneously. We are not to make gestures for the 
sake of making them, but in order to express our 
thoughts and feelings. 

The training in these four departments of speaking 
should be both general and special. 

1. The general training consists in a few minutes spent 
each morning in deep breathing, in vocal and in light 
gymnastic exercises, and whenever during the day it 
may be convenient and desirable. By such exercises the 
general health will be promoted, and the grace and power 
of utterance and movement in speaking secured. A 
sponge bath of cold water upon rising is an excellent 
nerve tonic if your system is strong enough to react 
under a rubbing; you will be then wide enough awake 
to take these exercises with delight. 

2. The special training consists in speaking carefully 
before an imaginary or real audience as frequently as 
possible. If you can secure a judicious friend to point 
out your defects and your virtues it will be a help; 
but you are to exercise your best taste and judgment in 



70 MODEKN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

finding these out for yourself, and you must develop 
yourself patiently and thoroughly. He who is intent 
upon mastering this last and, in some respects, most 
important part of preaching, must practise speaking to 
make the most of voice and gesture. The art of natural 
speaking does not come of itself. It is a great pity that 
there are students who go through college and seminary, 
and in all their training neglect this, either from lack of 
interest or the mistaken idea that the voice must be left 
to itself. The voice needs culture as much as the brain 
and the heart. It is a terrible waste of culture to be 
able to prepare a good sermon, and then fail in the last 
and most vital act — preaching it. Speak aloud in your 
room, and in the chapel, and in your walks in the country; 
train your voice by suitable exercises; do not be afraid 
to be heard but rather to be silent. The theological 
seminary is a school of preaching, a school of oratory. 
Yocal culture should not heedlessly disturb the quiet 
hour of study, but the public opinion of the students 
should demand that the quiet of study should not 
smother the training of the voice. 

The preaching a sermon is the truth incarnate in a 
man using the whole man to express itself fully and 
forcefully. 

The message God sends by you to your people He does 
not send by a letter, but by a man. It should take 
possession of your brain, your heart, your will; it should 
flash through your eye, vibrate in the tones of your 
voice, and speak through every movement of your body; 
the whole man should be given up to the message. You 
should see the truth clearly, recognize and give yourself 
up fully to the object of the truth, put yourself entirely 



HOMILETICS 71 

under the spirit of the truth. Every particle of your 
ability should be given up to it, or, rather, to Him, the 
Holy Spirit of truth, and then God speaks through you. 
If you are aglow with the love of Christ and the love of 
souls, if you have cultivated all your powers to their 
highest efficiency for His sake, and given them up with- 
out the slightest reserve to His service, you may then 
rely with utmost confidence upon His using you for His 
glory; you may trust absolutely that he will give you 
the unction of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of fire, the 
power from on high. 

This is true pulpit magnetism; it commands a hearing 
for the Gospel message, it awakens attention, it kindles 
sympathy, it is the fire in the pulpit that kindles fire in 
the pew, it is the heart in the preacher 7 s voice that sends 
his voice to the hearts of the people. 



CHAPTEE II 
LITURGICS 

Liturgies is that branch of Practical Theology which 
treats of the nature, spirit, and conduct of the public wor- 
ship of God. 

The word comes from the Greek, a combination of 
laos (people) and ergon (work). In Greek usage it 
meant work by and for the people, as of the wealthy in 
giving amusement and help to the masses. In New 
Testament usage it refers to the work of the people as 
directed to God; even where it refers to the ministering 
of some people to others, as of the saints at Corinth to 
the poor saints at Jerusalem, it is indirectly to God. In 
popular usage it refers to the use of a formal ritual in 
the worship of God. In scientific usage it covers the 
whole subject of the public worship of God. It has 
these characterists of a science: It gathers all the facts of 
this public worship of God in the history of the past and 
in present exercise in the whole earth; it sees what is 
common to all these facts; and it draws careful conclu- 
sions as to the substance and form of worship. 

There are at least four elements in all worship: 

1. Man is a religious being, having the power to think 
of a Being above him greater and better than he, and to 
desire to come into proper relations with Him. 

2. Man possesses qualities of character which he ap- 
proves in himself and admires in others, and of which 
he forms an ideal of perfection. 

72 



LITUKGXCS 73 

3. These qualities are not abstract, they are only to 
be found in persons. When such qualities in ideal per- 
fection are attributed to a superior being, the admira- 
tion awakened by them becomes adoration of that per- 
son. Worship is the adoration of God. These elements 
are found in all worship: fetish worship of savages, the 
idolatry of semi-civilized superstition, and Christian 
worship. Our German ancestors admired warlike quali- 
ties of character, attributed these in highest degree to 
their gods, and then adored these gods. The Christian 
worship differs from heathen worship in that, while 
their gods are imaginations of their own, our God is the 
true and living God, who has revealed Himself in nature 
and the Scriptures as having perfections worthy of adora- 
tion. 

4. This adoration takes place in the most sensitive and 
secluded moments of the soul. Worship is generally 
exercised in times and places when the soul is keenly 
centered in it. All that conflicts or detracts is carefully 
excluded from this sensitive moment of the soul. As 
distinguished from secular moments, it is a sacred time, 
devoted to the Being worshiped. The soul has its quiet 
hour when it is alone with God in the closet, the door 
being shut, or the soul meets with kindred souls on a 
sacred day in a sacred place. Public worship is incited 
and encouraged by fellowship, and may grow into a 
solemn enthusiasm when a multitude gathered for a holy 
purpose in a hallowed place is stirred by the contagion 
of deep feeling. Sacred times and places are thus dis- 
tinguished from the profane (pro = before, fannm =: the 
Temple) ; the word itself indicates the ground or street 
in front of the Temple, which is trampled by men intent 



74 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

on worldly thoughts and employments, while the wor- 
shipers are within the sacred place, in its guarded seclu- 
sion, its holy stillness and calm, with all else shut out — 
the worshipers alone with their God. 

The importance of worship may be considered in 
three directions: 

1. Its influence upon the worshipers. It must confirm 
the character it expresses, and greatly foster its further 
development. Adoration of the Supreme Being includes 
admiration of the qualities of character shining in Him. 
The sincerest admiration is close imitation, so such quali- 
ties are confirmed and developed in the adoring soul. 
This development of character is wrought inevitably by 
a law of our nature; it may be increased also by the in- 
telligent purpose of one who knows that the best way to 
please God is to grow like Him. Public worship adds 
the contagion of kindred feelings, and the stimulus of 
common hopes, purposes, and efforts. 

2. Its influence upon the nation. As worship prevails 
in a community and nation, as the number of worshipers 
and the sincerity of their worship prevail, in that degree 
will the whole nation grow in the qualities of character 
possessed by the god worshiped. This is always seen in 
the history of mankind. Worship has ever been a large 
element in the growth of the national and race character. 
Our German ancestors became more warlike by worship- 
ing warlike gods. The proportion in which a community 
or nation worships God has a large influence upon the 
character and welfare of the nation. He who touches 
the worship of a people touches an element of large in- 
fluence in their welfare. The growth of the United 
States in a worthy national character will be efficiently 



LITUEGICS 75 

fostered by the prevailing worship of the true God. Each 
community is elevated, refined, and ennobled in growing 
degree as the worship of the true God prevails. 

3. It honors God. The highest honor man can give to 
God is to grow like Him in qualities of character. 

The longing of a father's heart is for the recognition of 
his child and for the child's responsive love. The In- 
finite Father has this longing in highest degree, and it 
can be satisfied only by the worship of His children. 

The true worship of God is such a sincere and strong 
adoration of Him that the soul grows like Him. in moral 
qualities, and becomes strong to govern the whole man. 

Our old English word "worship " brings out this idea 
strongly and beautifully; it is composed of the two 
Anglo-Saxon words iveorth (worth) and stipe (ship, from 
sceapan, to shape) ; together they mean that worship is the 
whole man brought into a shape worthy of God. Two 
highly important truths are embraced in this statement. 
The first is that the spirit is to possess moral likeness to 
God, and the second is that this spirit, possessing moral 
likeness to God, is to be in the ascendency, in full and 
constant command of the whole man. The man is not to 
be ruled by his animal nature, nor by his intellectual 
nature, nor even by his social and domestic nature, but by 
his spiritual nature; and this enthroned spiritual nature 
is to shine in the likeness of God. So the whole man 
worships — that is, he is brought into a shape worthy of 
God. The stated times and formal acts of worship 
should therefore express and foster this constant attitude 
of the whole man to God. The whole service of worship 
should be designed and conducted to express and promote 
this attitude. He who conducts the public worship of 



76 MODEBN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

God should hold this ideal before himself, and he should 
also present this ideal constantly to the worshipers, and 
should seek to lead all men to this kind of worship. 

In the acts of worship the soul is not independent 
of the body; while it rules the body it is also largely in- 
fluenced by it. When the posture of the body is expres- 
sive of worship, it thereby fosters the worship of the soul. 
This is true of the individual in the closet; it is especially 
true of the kindred worshipers in the church, and it has 
a general influence upon those witnessing the act of wor- 
ship. The reverential posture of the body not only ex- 
presses but fosters the adoration of the soul. There are 
two limitations of our nature in this respect: Acts of 
worship can not be long continued — the strain upon the 
spiritual nature is too great to be prolonged; and the 
soul can not long worship without bodily acts — "pray- 
ing without ceasing ?? requires the bended knee and 
bowed head at stated times. 

In private worship the soul is alone with God, and, 
whatever be the posture of body and the acts and words 
used in this worship, others are not affected by them; 
but in public worship the agreement of a number of wor- 
shipers is essential, and the acts and words of worship 
should not disturb but foster this agreement. 

Public worship arises from the needs of man. Be- 
sides the private blessings each one receives, there are 
many public blessings; besides the private life each one 
lives, the grandeur and loneliness of personality, there 
are many social relations and public duties which are 
God given; and private worship, however important and 
delightful, needs to be supplemented by public worship. 
He who abstains from the public worship of God neglects 



LITUKGICS 77 

a large duty and privilege both to God and man. Pub- 
lic worship is also sanctioned by the general teaching of 
the Scriptures, by some special directions (e.g., Heb. 
x: 25), by many instances of such worship both in the Old 
and New Testaments, and by the example of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who was not content with private worship, 
but was in the habit of worshiping His Father on the 
Holy Day in both Synagog and Temple in public, with 
His worshiping people. 

The sole being who is the object of Christian wor- 
ship is the one and only God revealed in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and He is to be approached through Christ alone 
and by the Holy Spirit. 

We can find no sanction in the Scriptures for the 
inferior worship of the Virgin Mary and of the Saints, 
as practised by the Eomish Church. 

We can find no ritual prescribed in the Scriptures; 
the form of worship arises from the spirit of the wor- 
shipers. 

There are four qualities to be fostered in whatever 
form of worship is adopted: 

1. It should be intelligent. The acts and words used 
should be easily understood by the worshiping people. 
The people are to worship with the understanding — 
expressing what they believe and feel rather than accept- 
ing a service performed in their behalf by others. 

2. It should be expressive. The people are to express 
their feelings to God. Whatever impression is made 
upon witnesses must come from this expression of feeling 
to God. 

3. It should be spiritual. Eites and ceremonies are of 
value only as they express and cultivate spirituality. 



78 MODERN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

4. It should be simple. The elaboration of ritual which 
draws attention to its own magnificence is to be dis- 
carded. 

There are three principal theories concerning the 
leadership of public worship: 

1. Quakerism provides no order of leaders, but relies 
upon some one on each occasion being specially moved 
by the spirit of God to lead the worship. 

2. Eomanism provides an order of priests, who offer 
the sacrifice of Christ anew in rites and ceremonies 
inspiring awe 

3. Protestantism provides an order of ministers, trained 
and set apart to lead the public worship; these have no 
priestly powers, but are simply teachers and leaders of 
the people. 

The component parts of the Public Worship of God 
on His day and in His House are generally (1) Prayer, 
(2) Praise, (3) Eeading the Scriptures, (4) Offerings 
for the Lord's Cause, (5) Preaching, and at stated times 
(6) Administering the Sacraments of Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper. 

I. Prayer 

Two practises prevail in the Church Universal in 
regard to Public Prayer. 

(a) Prescribed forms are used in the Eoman Catholic 
and in the Episcopal churches. Here Church authority 
constructs with great care, gathering also from its long 
history, the best forms, and imposes their use upon all 
occasions. 

The Eoman Church has these forms in the Latin 
language. By the use of this language, set apart and 
thus made sacred for worship, she claims that she 



LITUEGICS 79 

awakens reverence and shows her antiquity — her unity 
and her unchangeableness — but it is evident she can not 
promote intelligence in worship by the use of a language 
unknown to many worshipers. 

The Episcopal Church uses prescribed forms in the 
language of the people worshiping. 

(6) Freedom in forcn, when the minister forms the 
prayer for each occasion. 

The Eeformed Church in America has forms for use in 
the general service, but gives the liberty to use them or 
not as seems expedient. She commits praying, as preach- 
ing, to the taste and skill of a consecrated, trained, and 
educated ministry. In the administration of the Sacra- 
ments, however, she commands that the prescribed forms 
of prayer shall be used, as also the devotional setting 
forth of the doctrines in our liturgical forms. 

There are some manifest advantages in having freedom 
from prescribed forms in prayer. 

1. Opportunity is given to conform to the changing 
needs and experiences of the people. 

2. Opportunity is also given for the development of 
the spirit and gift of prayer in both pastor and people. 
Fervor of spirit may so clothe itself in appropriate form 
that an advance is made toward perfection, toward the 
ideal of prayer. 

The minister's relation to public prayer is that of 
a leader. He does not pray for the people as an inter- 
cessor, but voices forth their united prayers; he leads 
the people of God in their prayers. He should express 
the feelings and desires which the people should have 
toward God in a way to honor Him and to cultivate 
their spiritual aspirations. There are two requisites for 



80 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

such leadership. He must have (1) the grace of prayer, 
the outgoing of a renewed heart, and the (2) gift of 
prayer, the ability to discern and express the needs of 
the people; and he should cultivate both grace and gift 
constantly. He should use choice language, suitable to 
the worship of God and easily understood by the people, 
that they may intelligently unite in the prayer. He 
should have such a knowledge of and sympathy with 
human hearts, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, 
that he expresses suitably those feelings and desires in 
which all should agree. 

The pastor should have such a view of the importance 
and solemnity of this part of worship as shall lead him 
to make the most careful preparation for it, in the selec- 
tion and arrangement of material, and in the manner of 
its presentation to God. As carefully as he prepares for 
his sermon, the address to the people in the name of 
God, so carefully should he prepare for prayer, the 
address to God, in the name of the people. The expres- 
sion in both cases may be fully written out or left to the 
impulse of the moment. 

The importance of public prayer is seen: 

1. In that it honors God, being a public acknowledg- 
ment of Him as the source of all good. 

2. In that it obtains blessings from Him by the believ- 
ing use of His own appointed means. 

3. In that it cultivates in the people the spirit and 
practise of private prayer. Man is the only being on 
earth capable of praying. Prayer is the exercise of the 
supreme faculty of our nature, that of having fellowship 
with God. This power should be in constant exercise; 
it should ceaselessly resist the down-pull of our lower 



LITUKGICS 81 

nature; it should be regarded as our highest duty and 
privilege to pray earnestly; but because the power of it 
is so lofty the exercise of it is difficult and sometimes 
neglected, and, therefore, God's people need for their 
private devotions the stimulus and help of frequent 
fellowship in prayer. 

The principal prayers in the usual service of public 
worship in the Eeformed churches are four: 

1. The Invocation. In this short prayer the people 
adore God and crave His presence and His direction in 
their worship. It usually closes with the Lord's Prayer, 
in which the people unite in voice, and it is followed 
immediately, while the people remain standing, with the 
Salutation. 

2. The Prayer upon Making the Offering. This is now 
being introduced, and in it the people dedicate their 
offering to God, and ask Him to receive it and bless its 
use, and cause the giving spirit to grow in their hearts 
and lives. 

S. The General, or Long, Prayer. In this the people 
present their common experiences and needs to God. 

Jf. The Closing Prayer. This may be immediately 
after the sermon, or after the closing hymn; in this last 
case it is followed by the Benediction. In the former 
case the hymn follows the prayer, and the Benediction 
follows the hymn and closes the service. In the closing 
prayer the people crave God's blessing upon his preached 
Word, and that it may rest upon them as they leave His 
house. 

1, 2, and 4 should be short and specific — a few sentences 
upon the one subject of the prayer. The General Prayer 
demands special consideration, 



82 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

The Salutation and Benediction are regarded by 
many as intercessory prayers of the pastor for the people, 
but we regard them as the blessing of God pronounced 
by His authorized minister upon His believing people. 
This demands that both should be in the exact words 
of Scripture — it is difficult and out of place to try to 
improve upon God's words of blessing. 

Choice may be made from the varied Salutations and 
Benedictions found in the Scripture for various occa- 
sions, but the general use should be largely confined 
to the Salutation in Eom. i:7, and the Benediction in 
II. Cor. xiii:14, these being very full and most generally 
adopted by the whole Church. They are suitable only 
to the public worship of God. The Benediction should 
not be given to dismiss a public meeting of a secular 
character, but a prayer suitable to the occasion should 
be made. 

The principal parts of the General, or Long, Prayer 
should be (1) Adoration, (2) Thanksgiving, (3) Con- 
fession, (4) Petition, and (5) Conclusion. 

1. Adoration. This embraces the address to God, 
which should be by the names, titles, attributes, and 
descriptions He has given of Himself in the Scriptures. 
The mind of the pastor should be stored with these. 
Then follows the expression of the feelings properly 
awakened by the greatness, character, and works of Godj 
the faith and affection of the people are confirmed and 
fostered by this contemplation of God. This part of 
the prayer should be short and of great variety, but its 
spirit should pervade the whole prayer. 

2. Thanksgiving generally and naturally follows, tho 
at times Confession may take its place. There should 



LITUKGICS 83 

be a prominent place for Thanksgiving in every General 
Prayer, for the spirit of gladness should be present in 
all worship/ and God's people should always be thank- 
ful that they are God's. Thanking and thinking are 
near akin, and we should so think of God's many gifts 
of providence and grace that we acknowledge Him as 
the giver with grateful hearts. There should be such a 
suggestive selection of topics as to secure to this portion 
of the prayer great variety from week to week. 

3. Confession should also have a place in every Gen- 
eral Prayer. The sentimentalist may say that we should 
not mention our sins so frequently to God; that an earthly 
father does not desire this from his child; that it is 
morbid, and not a high ideal of child character. But in 
prayer, as in everything, it is of first importance to be 
true. To speak to God as if we were without sin would 
be false to our real condition. So Christ teaches us to 
pray for daily forgiveness. On the other hand, we must 
not say too hard things about ourselves; we must be 
true in this direction also. 

We are not to confess that we are dead in sin, that 
there is no good in us. We confess that we were dead, 
but we thankfully acknowledge that the grace of God 
has brought us into new life, so we are His worshiping 
people. Much sinfulness remains in us against our will 
— we confess this with contrition. We fall far short of 
perfect Christlikeness, we confess this with aspirations. 
We also make mention of our sins of omission and 
commission as aggravated by the constant grace of 
God. 

4. Petition should be the larger portion of every Gen- 
eral Prayer, and should generally be (1) for the individ- 



84 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

ual church, and (2) for the universal Church, the King- 
dom of God, and (3) for the world. 

1. Petition for the individual church should embrace 
as its object both material and spiritual blessings for all 
the members: daily bread, daily forgiveness, daily deliv- 
erance from evil — that is, all the gifts and graces needed 
to make the church effective for good in the community 
and the world. Special prayers should be made for the 
sick and the afflicted. 

2. In praying for the Church Universal and for the King- 
dom of Christ, the individual church is still praying for 
herself, since she is a part of these. She prays that the 
universal Church shall grow in Christlikeness and shall 
preach Christ's Gospel in the whole earth, thus advanc- 
ing His Kingdom in the world. She prays for the nation 
in which she dwells and for its rulers, that the Kingdom 
may flourish here, and for all kindreds and peoples and 
nations, that the Kingdom may be established and flour- 
ish everywhere. The church should always remember 
in her prayers her missionaries and those of the Church 
Universal, and every agency used for establishing the 
Kingdom of God. She should also frequently pray 
for her baptized members, that they may become full 
members in Christ. 

3. The church should always pray for the world that 
does not pray for itself; this is the church's inter- 
cessory prayer. She intercedes for the unconverted 
within her congregation, that they may become the 
full and avowed followers of Christ and worshipers of 
God through Him. She intercedes for the neglecters 
of God in Christian lands who never gather for His 
public worship in the church; and for the heathen. 



LITUEGICS 85 

She prays for material and spiritual blessings for all 
men — not merely and vaguely that "God will bless/' 
but with special desires for special blessings. The 
spirit of the petition should be earnest and impor- 
tunate. We may plead with God, plead His covenant, 
His promises, the Savior's name. God encourages His 
people to urge their desires in true faith. 

5. The conclusion should be in keeping with the 
whole prayer, leaving the impression of the majesty and 
holiness of God upon the minds and hearts of the people. 
It should end in the name of Christ, or rarely with a 
Scriptural doxology. The Amen should be distinctly 
pronounced and without haste, but should not be in- 
toned, as the whole prayer is spoken, not sung. 

The style and manner of Public Prayer should be 
reverential. Terms of familiarity and endearment 
should be avoided, since we are addressing the Infinite 
and Holy God. Simple and chaste language should be 
used, easily understood by the ignorant and distressed, 
and also proper to use before the throne of the Most 
High. The tone of voice should be easily heard by all, 
from the first word of the prayer to the last, and should 
be earnest but never loud nor boisterous, since God is 
near by and loves to hear His people pray. The pos- 
ture should be reverent; usually the minister should stand 
with clasped hands, without gesture, and the people 
should listen with bowed heads. 

A reverent spirit and good taste will avoid such faults 
as the reiteration in prayer of the name of God, the 
preaching to the people, the use of personalities and 
compliments, and reference to private or domestic affairs. 
The minister should also guard against making the 



86 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

prayer too short, so as to be slighting, or too long, so as 
to be wearisome. It should generally be about ten min- 
utes long. 

The preparation for Public Prayer should be both 
general and special. The minister should be familiar 
with the prayers in the Scriptures, with the collects of 
prayer in the liturgies of the churches, and with the 
prayers of many richly gifted ministers as found in 
books or heard in the churches; thus learning from the 
prayers of others, he should carefully construct prayers 
of his own. 

His special preparation should embrace the realization 
of the special needs of his congregation; he should know 
his people intimately, and should try to sympathize with 
them, to feel as Christ would feel with and for them. 

II. Praise 

There are three important elements of Public 
Praise: (i) Lyric Poetry, {2) Music of Voice, and (3) 
Music of Instruments. 

I. Lyric Poetry. Epic poetry describes action. 
Dramatic poetry presents the actors. Lyric poetry 
voices the reality, the truth back of all action. Lyric 
poetry is musical thought and feeling, the deep har- 
monies of nature's many voices caught by the sensitive 
soul of the poet and voiced by him for kindred souls. 
Soaring, it leaves the other kinds of poetry far below, 
and, looking out upon the face of nature and up into 
the face of God, it sings. Poetry that can be sung is 
the poetry of the soul; it expresses and awakens the 
deepest and finest feelings, and directs them in the 
worship of God. It has vast power over the minds and 



LITUEGICS 87 

hearts of mankind. There is much force in the saying: 
"Let me make the songs of a people and I care not 
who makes their laws." One can hardly estimate the 
influence of poetry upon the average church assembly. 
The minister should value aright this important element 
in worship. He should pay much attention to the study 
and selection of hymns, he should have his feelings 
deeply stirred by them, and he should read them with 
full expression of feeling. The reading of hymns is 
an important part of the minister's leading of worship; 
he is the interpreter of the hymns to many of the con- 
gregation, and the singing of the hymns will largely de- 
pend upon the feeling his interpretation awakens in 
their hearts. 

2. Music of Voice. The tones of voice in singing 
are those that express and awaken sentiment rather than 
thought. The thought of the hymn is expressed by the 
voice with feeling, and it awakens responsive feeling. 
People generally, if they have the feeling, can use the 
tones of voice expressive of feeling — they can sing their 
feelings. 

There has been a vast amount of song brought into the 
world by Christianity; it has awakened the feelings that 
voice themselves in song, and Christian assemblies are 
singing assemblies. Eichly gifted and cultured voices, 
if stirred by Christian feeling, can express such feeling 
in a way to awaken it powerfully in listening souls. As 
with poetry, so with this rendering of it. One can hardly 
estimate the power of song both to express and stir the 
feelings. 

3. Music of Instruments. The music of instru- 
ments also awakens and expresses sentiment rather than 



88 MODEKN PBACTICAL THEOLOGY 

thought. There is a language of music; it conveys 
ideas or thoughts, but these are so charged with feeling 
and so awakening of feeling that the thought exists in 
order to feel. 

In the ancient Temple on Zion there was much music 
in the worship of God: the lyric poetry of the Psalms; 
a great choir, well trained, and leading at times the 
great congregation; and a vast orchestra, made up of 
skilled players of all the instruments of music then 
known. Above and beyond all the praise of the earth 
shall be the praise in heaven, and it shall contain these 
three elements: (1) "The songs of Moses and the Lamb. 
(2) The voice of harpers (3) harping with their 
harps." 

As with poetry and song, so here one can hardly esti- 
mate the power of instrumental music. An army is 
tired out on the march or wavering on the line of battle; 
the band plays stirring martial music, and it is a new 
army, not tired or wavering, but full of courage and 
power. 

The church organ is the king of instruments. David's 
orchestra had a hundred or more pipes, but our organ 
may have a thousand pipes to his hundred. The tones 
of the organ are peculiarly expressive of the feelings en- 
gaged in worship, and awaken and cultivate such feel- 
ings. When a skilled player filled with religious feel- 
ing renders upon this wonderful instrument music 
expressive of religious feeling, one can not estimate its 
power on a worshiping assembly. 

The combination of these three elements— poetry, 
song, and instrumental music-— makes the Public Praise 
a great tribute to God and a vast power over mankind. 



LITUEGICS 89 

The importance of Public Praise lies in three 
directions: 

1. It expresses and cultivates religious sentiment While 
there are many ways of doing this, nothing can take the 
place of Public Praise. 

2. It impresses tlie community and the world with the joy- 
ous and praisef ul spirit of religion. Eeligion is not sad and 
gloomy; it sings too much to allow such an impression 
to prevail. A due consideration of the history and 
practise of Christian praise gives some idea of the 
amount of joy Christianity has brought to the earth. 

S. It honors God. God as revealed in Christ is not to 
be hated, dreaded, and feared, but loved, joyed in, and 
praised. The worshiping people rejoice in and praise 
God; they do not wail, they sing. 

Public Praise is addressed to God. God loves 
music. He is the Great Musician. He made all musical 
sounds: the songs of winds, of streams, of ocean, of birds. 
He gave the human voice the power of song, and to man 
the power to devise instruments; and He gave to some men 
genius to compose music. In worship man gathers up all 
this musical power, or represents it, and offers it all to God. 

The praise should undoubtedly be the best we can 
possibly give. It is addressed to God; this should be 
^ ever kept in mind. It is the religious kind of poetry, 
song, and music. 

We instinctively reject sensual, amatory, and bac- 
chanalian poetry in thinking of that which is suitable 
for worship. 

The music to be sung or played has a language as well 
as the words; music that awakens and expresses sensual- 
ity, amativeness, or revelry should be rejected. 



90 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Public Praise differs from a concert in its nature — it is 
addressed to God; a concert is addressed to an audience. 
This end forms the standard of religious music. The 
poetry, the music of voice, the music of instrument, must 
all be addressed to God. They should be of the very 
best (within the reach of the worshipers) that can be 
suitably addressed to God; they must express and awaken 
feelings of worship. It is debasing this part of the serv- 
ice to devote it to man; it is turning the praising of 
God into a concert for man. To charm the musical 
taste of the audience is not the aim of this part of the 
service, and it should be carefully avoided. The sole 
aim is to express and awaken feelings of worship, and 
present these to God. Therefore, the very best music in 
the very best manner to accomplish this aim should be 
given to God. 

Public Praise is presented to God by His worship- 
ing people either directly or by their chosen representa- 
tives. There should be a large element of congrega- 
tional singing. All the people have abundant reason to 
thank and praise God with their voices, and, tho the 
singing of some may not be of the finest quality, judged 
by musical standards, it may be a suitable expression of 
feeling and well pleasing to God. 

There are three ways of cultivating good congrega- 
tional singing: 

1. The minister should read the hymns in a way to bring 
out their meaning and to arouse the feelings of praise in 
the people. Such reading prepares for congregational 
singing in a high degree, and the minister should employ 
this means enthusiastically. The selection of hymns 
should be carefully made by the minister with a view to 



LITUEGICS 91 

such reading and singing. The hymns of each service 
should be in harmony with the other parts of the serv- 
ice, not generally on the same theme as the sermon but 
in harmony with it, and should be such as will awaken 
and express feelings of praise. 

2. Tunes suitable to congregational singing should be se- 
lected. Those of a simple melody, suited to any voice, 
with no skips or long intervals, with no jerks, but con- 
fined within an octave, and having a strong, joyous 
rhythm, should be used exclusively. One should be- 
come very familiar with the hymns and tunes of the book 
used. Our Church directs that only such books as are 
approved by the General Synod shall be used. But the 
General Synod does not approve of all the hymns and 
tunes in any book to the extent of making it one's duty 
to use them generally* Probably three-fourths of the 
hymns and perhaps four-fifths of the tunes should be 
rejected as unsuitable for congregational singing. The 
carefully selected ones should be marked in your study 
hymn-book, and selections each Sabbath made from these 
only. 

8. The singing should be in unison rather than in harmony. 
If the congregation is led by a choir, let the choir lead 
in unison. Explain to the choir and congregation the 
need of this, and ask the strong, cultivated singers to 
help along the uncultivated voices and the whole con- 
gregation in their praises. A little consideration and 
practise in this line will awaken an enthusiasm for con- 
gregational singing. In a little while, through this 
training, the volume of song will be so great that the 
cultivated voices in the congregation may, if they choose, 
sing their parts. 



92 MODEEN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

The singing of a trained choir is also to be used, 
not only as a leader of congregational singing, but by 
themselves. It may be either a quartet or a chorus 
choir, and a rich solo voice is often effective in awaken- 
ing and expressing right feelings toward God. Three 
things about a choir are of the greatest importance: 

1. It should be composed exclusively of the worship- 
ing people of God. As well might an unbeliever lead in 
the prayer service as in the praise service. 

2. It should view its mission to be not to delight the 
people as in a concert, but to dedicate all its talent to 
the praise of God. 

3. It should locate its anthems and other selected 
pieces in those parts of the service the minister deems 
most suitable for the whole, and should limit the time 
occupied to the needs of the other parts of the service. 

There is also a place in Public Praise for instrumental 
music, either accompanying the voice or by itself. 

That which is true of the choir is true of the organist: 
he should be a believer, should dedicate his talent to 
God, and should occupy those parts and only so much 
of the service as the need of the other parts and of the 
whole service demands. 

The people jshould be taught that the organ prelude is 
not to occupy the time while the people take their seats, 
thus encouraging late coming, but that it is a part of the 
praise of God — that the service begins^with the first note 
of the organ. 

The opening music of the organ should be short — not 
over three minutes long — and of a solemn character. 
The postlude, at the close, is also a part of the praise 
of God to the last note on the organ ; and while the 



LITTTKGICS 96 

people are leaving the church the music should not 
march or dance them out, but be of the character suit- 
able to the last act of worship. 

The congregation should stand during the singing 
of the congregational hymns. The second hymn should 
be followed immediately by the sermon. The standing 
during the singing of this hymn is specially desirable; 
the act of standing rests the people, and the singing pre- 
pares them to listen to the preached Word of God. To 
have the offering, notices, anthem, or anything come 
between that hymn and the sermon distracts the atten- 
tion. 

The objection to the opening of the service with the 
long meter Doxology is that it starts the service at too 
high a key; it is difficult to keep up to this or make 
any culmination from it. The tune of Old Hundred is 
one of the best congregational tunes, and the Doxology 
itself is sublime; it is much better to use it as the closing 
hymn by the congregation and to have the whole service 
culminate in it. 

III. Reading the Scriptures 

The reading the Scriptures should form a promi- 
nent part of the Public Worship of God. Other parts 
of the worship are addressed to God. He is also hon- 
ored by the reverent attention of the people when He 
speaks directly to them. It is seldom best to select a 
Scripture-reading for the sake of giving the connection 
in which the text of the sermon is found; to follow 
such a plan would give but little system in this part of 
the service, while the aim should be to instruct and 
stimulate the people in the knowledge and love of the 



94 MODEEN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Bible. Each minister should devise a plan to give his 
people, through this part of the service, a full view of 
God's Word during the course of a year or two. The 
responsive reading of the Psalms, by minister and people 
reading alternate parallels rather than verses, is excel- 
lent. The Psalms should not be read through in course, 
however, but a selection of those most adapted to awaken 
devout feeling should be carefully made. A selection 
also from the Old Testament and one from the New 
should be given. 

The minister should have all Scripture selections made 
in his study, and should carefully prepare himself for 
their effective reading, grasping the meaning and the 
feeling and the purpose of the passage fully, so that he 
may read in a way to convey the meaning, stir the feel- 
ing, and arouse the purpose of the people. He should 
have the selected passage carefully marked in the pulpit 
Bible, so he may refer to it easily, without the irreverent 
and disturbing turning of the pages to find the place. 
If the Commandments are read each Sabbath, if the 
Lord's Prayer is repeated, if a selection from the Psalms 
is read responsively, and if a selection from the Old 
Testament and another from the New Testament are well 
read, each service will give a place of honor to God's 
Word, and the people will become well acquainted with 
all parts of the Scriptures, and be incited to a more care- 
ful reading of them in private. 

IV. Offerings 

An offering should be made at each regular serv- 
ice of the Lord's day. The people of God worship Him 
in contributing of their means to the advancement of 



LITUEGICS 95 

His cause. A prayer may be made upon receiving the 
offering. Those able to give more, who have carelessly 
formed a habit of contributing a penny, will see the 
absurdity of praying over it, and the offering will be 
lifted up in their esteem, and in the esteem of all, by 
giving it with prayer to God; or a hymn may be sung, 
or the service may be accompanied by an offertory by 
choir or organ. The offering should be made before the 
sermon, except in those cases where a special appeal for 
some cause is made in the sermon, and it is deemed best 
to take the offering upon the impulse of the appeal. 
But as a rule the offering should be a matter of principle 
rather than impulse. 

It is better to have church notices given by a 
printed calendar; but when they have to be published 
from the pulpit they should be as concisely stated as 
possible, should be read clearly so they need not be re- 
peated, and should be only of church matters. Church 
activities should be of interest to all, and a cordial invi- 
tation to unite in them is in place in the worship of God, 
but notices of things out of harmony with His worship 
should be carefully excluded. The church notices and 
the offering should come before the singing of the second 
hymn. 

V. Preaching 

The sermon is an important part of the worship 
of God. As the reading of the Scriptures is God speak- 
ing to the people by His written word, so the sermon is 
God speaking to the people by His chosen messenger, 
enforcing His word. In this sense it may be said to be 
the culminating act of worship; what we can say to God 



96 MODEKN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

can not compare in importance with what He says to us. 
If the minister has this view of his position, he will con- 
duct the whole service and come up to this part of it as 
thoroughly prepared as consecrated effort and earnest 
prayer can make him. If the people have this view of 
the position, they will receive the message reverently as 
from the Throne of God. 

The whole service of worship should not be over an 
hour and a half long, and at least half an hour should 
be given to the sermon. 

VI. The Administration of the Sacraments 

Administrations of the Sacraments are acts of 
worship occurring at stated times, and should generally 
be in addition to the ordinary worship of the Sabbath, 
in which all the church-members engage. 

Baptism and the Lord's Supper are signs and seals of 
the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, instituted by 
Him to make spiritual truths clear to His people; to 
quicken their faith, sealing to them His promises; and 
to afford them a badge or banner to distinguish them 
from the world. They are to be administered only by 
an ordained minister of Christ as acting for the whole 
Church in accepting the Sacraments as Christ designed 
them. The Sacraments do not make one a partaker of 
Christ's salvation — faith alone can do that; they only 
express and strengthen that faith and show it forth to 
the world. 

Baptism is the rite of entrance into the Christian 
Church. It is therefore to be administered only to those 
who already believe in Christ as their Savior, and to 
their children. 



LITUEGICS 97 

In our Eeformed Church the elders of the church, 
acting for the whole Church, give admission into the 
membership of the Church through the rite of baptism. 
Their duty is to admit only those who are already mem- 
bers of Christ by a true faith. In judging of this they 
are limited to the confession of faith made by the appli- 
cant, and can only judge of its credibility. The Church 
has no right to make any condition of membership other 
than Christ has made. There should be intelligence, 
a knowledge of the facts and principles of our religion; 
there should be feeling, a trust in Christ for salvation; 
there should be purpose to live a life of trust and obedi- 
ence to Christ — enough of these to constitute one a " be- 
liever in Christ ? ' ; the standard should not be made 
unnecessarily high. The pastor should have a class 
preparing for Church membership by study of our Com- 
pendium, and should seek to have the young become 
members of the Church at the age of adolescence, as we 
shall see in our study of Pedagogy, thus insuring a con- 
stant inflow of intelligent members, well informed and 
thoroughly convinced of the doctrines of the Church. 
These are also required to show evidence of true conver- 
sion by having the feeling and the purpose in harmony 
with such truths. 

But the entrance to the Church should not be 
limited to such a class, or to the amount of knowledge 
required of such a class; many immature minds, many 
ignorant ones, would thus be kept out of the Church 
whom Christ had accepted into the invisible Church. 
The evidence of regeneration may be very good in one 
largely ignorant of the doctrines of the Church; such a 
one should not be deprived of his right to confess Christ 



98 MODEEN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

before men, and of the fellowship of believers, and of 
the strengthening of his faith by the sacraments. 

The question of accepting one who knows the doc- 
trines, but rejects one or more of them, is more difficult — 
it depends upon the nature of the doctrine rejected and 
upon the spirit of the rejection of it. The Church 
should certainly receive all those whom it has good rea- 
son to believe Christ has already received as His mem- 
bers. This must be the interpretation put upon "the 
assent to all the articles of the Christian religion as they 
are taught in this Christian church, according to the 
Word of God, ' ' required in our Form of Baptism. The 
spirit and practise of our Church certainly repel the 
supposition that she has made any condition of Church 
membership which would exclude any sincere believer 
in her Lord. The pastor should read and explain the 
Form of Baptism to each applicant in this spirit, so that 
each may intelligently and conscientiously answer the 
questions. 

The elders, having accepted the confession of faith, 
admit the applicant to the Bite of Baptism, which com- 
pletes the entrance into the membership of the Church. 
In administering baptism the whole form should be read, 
and it should be in the presence of the whole church, 
except in case of sickness. The baptism may be by 
either of the three modes, but the general custom of our 
Church of the mode of sprinkling should not be set 
aside in any particular instance, except for the gravest 
reasons. 

Baptism is also to be administered to those children of 
baptized believers who have not yet reached the age of 
discretion. Here also the baptism does not make the 



LITTJEGICS 99 

child a member of Christ; the child is already in the 
covenant by the faith of the parents — one or both — and 
baptism simply signifies that fact. The parents, in bring- 
ing a child for -baptism, do not give the child to God; 
they simply acknowledge that the child already belongs 
to God, and baptism signifies that fact. It follows, then, 
that all believing parents may claim baptism for their 
children, and the Church has here also no right to make 
any other condition than Christ has already made. The 
question, then, whether a baptized member of the Church, 
who is not a communicant, has a right to have a child 
baptized resolves itself into the question, Is such a one a 
believer in Christ ! If so, the right is undoubted, and 
such a one can freely take the promises required in the 
form. Of that question the elders must be the judges; 
the presumption is in favor of the faith, and generally 
they must appeal to the conscience of the parent. In 
administering baptism to infants the whole form should 
be read, and it should be in the presence of the whole 
church, except in case of sickness. It is well to have a 
stated time for such baptisms, and it is suitable to have 
the Sabbath immediately following Communion set apart 
for it. In the baptism of a child at home an elder 
should be present, and so much of the form as the cir- 
cumstances of the case permit should be read. In case 
the child is sick, blood- warm water should be used that 
no shock be given. Those baptized in infancy, when 
they reach the age of discretion are admitted to the 
Lord's Supper by the elders upon confession of their faith. 
The administration of the Lord's Supper should 
be observed four times each year, generally the first Sab- 
bath in each season, and it may be observed oftener. It 

LofC. 



1Q0 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

should be observed at the main service of worship in the 
church, and efforts should be made to have all regular 
attendants present — non-communicants as well as mem- 
bers. The Supper itself is an impressive preaching of 
the Gospel, u showing the Lord's death till he come." 
There should be a sermon preached, but it should be very 
short; and the other parts of the service should be also 
short, but there should be no haste inconsistent with the 
utmost solemnity. The whole service should not exceed 
the length of the ordinary morning service, since deep 
feeling is exhausting, and since especially the attend- 
ance of the aged and feeble should be encouraged. 
When members are received who are to be baptized, the 
form should be read and the baptism made before the 
Communion. When members are received who were 
baptized in infancy, or who come from sister churches, 
they are to be welcomed publicly by the use of our 
forms. In addition to these, the whole of the Form for 
the Administration of the Lord's Supper should be read. 
The reading of the Self-examination part of the form 
should not be read at the Preparatory Service and 
omitted from the Communion Service; it is needed by 
all the communicants, some of whom may not have 
attended the Preparatory Service; and it is especially 
needed at the time of the Lord's Supper. A hymn may 
be sung after giving the Form of Baptism, and a hymn 
may be sung just before the Lord's Supper itself, or 
before the reading of the form. The congregation 
should stand and unite in the Apostles' Creed. The 
Lord's Prayer should be used but once during the entire 
service. There should not be a so-called prayer of con- 
secration before the elements are used; the consecration 



LITUEGICS 101 

needed is of the believing people, and the prayers 
which are a part of the form should be used, and these 
alone. After the Communion there should be a short 
address by the pastor. In such a service there is no 
place for long selections from Scripture, or long prayers, 
or hymns, or for any special music on the organ, but the 
service as described may be easily conducted within an 
hour and a half, and be made very impressive to men 
and expressive of loftiest worship to God. 

The elders of the church should sit on one side 
and the deacons on the other side of the table. The 
minister should serve the elders first, and then the 
deacons, and then the deacons should serve the people. 
The communicants should be seated together, and sepa- 
rated from the general audience. It is proper for the 
minister to be served by one of the deacons after the 
people. During the distribution of both the bread and 
the wine there should be absolute silence, each soul hav- 
ing that opportunity for private meditation and prayer; 
no remarks by the pastor should disturb this soul com- 
munioL with the Lord at His table. 

Whethei fermented or unfermented wine should be 
used, whethei common or individual cups, may be 
decided by each church. The minister will do well to 
leave the custom he finds existing unchanged. The min- 
ister should have the record of baptisms, both adult and 
infant, and of church-members well kept — in many 
cases he should keep them himself. There should be 
both a record of time and an alphabetical record of 
names, and the maiden names should be included in the 
names of married women. 



CHAPTEE III 
POIMENICS 

Poimenics is the sum of our knowledge of the nature 
of the pastoral office, and of the duties and privileges of 
a pastor. The pastor is the under-shepherd of Christ, 
ministering to a particular church or flock of God. Our 
Lord Jesus Christ calls Himself "the Good Shepherd," 
in John x:ll, and in Eph. iv:ll it is said the ascend- 
ing Christ "gave some pastors ?? (the word is the 
same in both statements: _poimew:=:shepherd). Hence 
poimenics becomes the technical word to describe a pas- 
tor or shepherd. The pastor has the spiritual oversight 
of a particular church, consisting of the conduct of the 
worship, the administering of the Sacraments, the 
preaching of the Word, and especially the care of souls 
in the church and within the reach of the church. 

This Christ-given office (Eph. iv:ll) meets the need 
of an organized society of believers to be instructed, 
stimulated, and led in the religious life. It arose in the 
early organization of the Church. The apostle Paul on 
his way to Jerusalem sent for the elders of the church at 
Ephesus to meet him at Miletus, and in his address to 
them said: "The Holy Ghost hath made you overseers 
(or bishops) to feed the Church of God." While he 
calls all the elders bishops, his description especially 
refers to the preaching elders or pastors. In I. Peter 
v:l-4 the apostle calls himself an elder, and exhorts 

102 



POIMENICS 103 

the elders "to feed the flock of God/' and promises 
them a rich reward when the Chief Shepherd shall 
appear. The character of the office is thus described 
u to feed the flock of God ?? ; as divinely appointed and 
meeting a great need of the Church, it is most elevated 
and sacred. It ministers to the spiritual and eternal in- 
terests of mankind, and it involves vast responsibilities 
and rewards. 

The pastor, while closely related to several other 
offices mentioned in the Scriptures, is to be carefully 
distinguished from them. The priests of the Old Tes- 
tament offered sacrifices for the sins of the people. The 
Great High Priest, our Blessed Lord, has offered Him- 
self, the perfect sacrifice, and no further priest or sacri- 
fice is needed. The pastor is in no sense a priest, other 
than as all believers are priests to offer the sacrifice of 
thanksgiving to God. The prophets of the Old Testa- 
ment were preachers of righteousness to the people or 
nation; the pastors are preachers of righteousness, but 
to special churches, tho some with rich gifts reach 
beyond the special church to the nation and the world. 
However, the prophets had also the power of prediction, 
and the most gifted pastor can claim no such power. 
The pastor is also distinguished from the apostles, who 
were sent forth as witnesses of the resurrection of Christ; 
from the evangelists, who preached the Gospel, but were 
not in charge of any particular church; from the elders, 
who ruled in a particular church but were not preachers 
of the Word; and from the deacons, who ministered spe- 
cially in temporal matters. The pastor is also distin- 
guished in our day from missionaries sent forth to organ- 
ize churches in heathen lands; from ministers of the 



104 MODEBN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Word serving the Church, in various positions, but not 
in charge of a particular church; and from licentiates, 
those who are licensed to preach, and are candidates for 
the pastoral office, but who have not yet been called to 
particular churches. 

The pastor's relation to the community in which 
the church is situated is to lead the church in its divinely 
appointed mission. The church is to win the community 
for Christ, to seek the people for the good of the people, 
to advance the welfare of society in all directions through 
the spiritual and eternal welfare of the largest possible 
number of its members. The pastor is to stimulate, 
organize, and lead in this Christ-given and Christlike 
mission. The particular church is then not only the 
field in which the pastor is to labor, but the force with 
which he is to work in the community. The two objects 
never conflict, since the highest training he can give 
the Church is to lead all her members in serving the 
community; and the pastor and church that are not 
heartily devoting themselves to the welfare of the com- 
munity in which they dwell can not be said to be honor- 
ing their Lord with all their powers. The sole object of 
a church is the conversion of sinners into saints; sinners 
are wonderfully active for evil, saints should we wonder- 
fully active for good; enthusiastic, wide-awake saints 
honor God in serving their fellow men. 

The pastor dwelling in a community, then, is one 
whose sole aim and work is to advance the highest in- 
terests of that community. Others have this aim in 
carrying on their business by which they gain their 
livelihood; all members of the Church should do this, 
but this is the sole business of the pastor. He has had 



POIMENICS 105 

a long and thorough training for this work. He is a 
specialist in this kind of work in an age when specialists 
have much power. He succeeds another specialist in this 
work. The work is not new, but continues in the hands 
of specialists and so gathers accumulated power. He is 
a leader in this work of an organization, the Church of 
Christ; he is so to labor in that organization as to awaken 
an enthusiasm for doing good, and then he is to direct 
this organized power to the welfare of the community. 
This is a unique feature of Christian lands. In heathen 
lands a priest maintains a Temple service. He seeks 
the people for the sake of the Temple. The Church idea 
is to seek the people for the good of the people — not to 
build itself up in financial strength and social standing, 
for that is the heathen principle, but to give itself for 
service, which is the Christ principle. The good Church 
is the Church that does good, that is Christlike. 

In each community, then, there is a man leading an 
organization, and the sole object of both pastor and 
church is the welfare of the community. This is de- 
signed, established, and sustained by the Lord Jesus 
Christ; it is a divine institution charged with divine 
power. The revised version of Eph. iv:12 reads: 
" He gave pastors for the perfecting of the saints unto 
the work of ministering.'' The pastor is the Christ- 
given man to a church to minister to the Church and 
through the Church to the world. The Church is a so- 
ciety gathered and swayed by the spirit of Christ, her 
Lord. To deepen this spirit, to make each society one 
family in Christ, filled with love for him and for the 
souls he came to save, is the delightful mission of the 
pastor. To seek this position is a worthy ambition, to 



106 MODEKN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

prepare faithfully for it is a splendid training, to carry 
it on is a noble life-work. 

God calls men into this great office in two ways: by 
the inward call, the voice of God in the soul; and by 
the outward call, the voice of God in His Church. The 
inward call is not miraculous by audible voice or visible 
sign, but is the constraining of the soul by the Holy 
Spirit. 

There seem to be at least six characteristics of this in- 
ward call of God. 

1. It embraces conversion and consecration to the 
Savior — a sharing His spirit in the desire to save souls 
from sin, and a genuine passion for righteousness. 

2. It involves the possession of the requisite ability 
for the office and of taste for it. 

3. It awakens a sense of duty — a choice of the will, 
and conscience hesitates to sanction any other choice. 

4. It is confirmed by the indications of Providence. 

5. It arouses a determined purpose to obtain the 
necessary training, and generally is approved and 
encouraged by Christian friends and acquaintances. 

6. It leads one to seek the call of God through His 
Church. No one can become the pastor of a church 
except by the call of that church. But in the Eeformed 
Church there must be a general call by the whole Church, 
leading to the special call by the individual church. 
The power of the church is not original, but purely 
ministerial, to voice the call of God. Her mission is to 
give the outward call only where God has already given 
the inward call, and then to induct the one so called into 
the pastoral office in an orderly and edifying manner. 
The method of exercising this power in the Eeformed 



POIMENICS 107 

Church is the selection of men who seem called of 
God, and the training of them in her Theological Semi- 
naries. She then licenses them to preach the Gospel, 
and commends them to the individual churches. When 
such a church calls one as pastor, the Classis, if still con- 
vinced that he is called of God, ordains him to the 
ministry of the Gospel, and in a public religious service 
installs him as pastor of that church. 

Ordination to the ministry depends upon one's being 
called as pastor by a particular church, except when one 
becomes a missionary under the direction of a Classis or 
in foreign lands, and only ordained ministers can be in- 
ducted into the pastoral office. 

The only exceptions to this method of calling men are: 

1. That the General Synod may, in its discretion, dis- 
pense with the training of the theological seminary in 
whole or in part, and 

2. Pastors may be called from the ministry of sister 
denominations. 

There are some natural qualities which it is evi- 
dent the pastor should possess and constantly endeavor 
to cultivate to the highest degree. 

1. Good intellectual gifts, the power and taste for study 
and reasoning, since his life-work is the presentation of 
the loftiest themes of thought. 

2. A deep j emotional nature, since he is to feel and 
minister to the greatest needs of man. 

S. Good powey*s of speech, since a prominent part of 
his life-work is to be public address. 

4* Vigorous bodily health and a hopeful disposition, so he 
may labor constantly and cheerfully. 

It is equally evident he should possess and cultivate 



108 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

to the highest possible degree the following spiritual 
qualities: 

1. A strong conviction of Bible truths, since he is to 
preach these to others. 

2. A deep experience of the grace of God, since he is to 
commend this to others. 

3. A controlling loyalty to Christ, since he is to urge 
others to love Him. 

Jf. A yearning love for the souls of men, since he is seek- 
ing to save them from sin. 

5. A zeal for righteousness, since his life-work is 
to build up the Kingdom of Eighteousness in the 
world. 

There is a subtle danger that the cultivation of his 
natural powers may lead to the neglect of his spiritual; 
this must be guarded against in the Seminary and after- 
ward in his life-work. IsTo amount of scholarship, rea- 
soning power, or eloquence can compensate for the lack 
of spiritual qualities. 

There is a still more subtle danger which must be 
guarded against in the Seminary and in after life: that 
the cultivation of his spiritual qualities may lead to the 
neglect of his natural qualities. That is a deficient kind 
of piety that leads a minister to neglect his study; that 
is a false reliance upon the Holy Spirit which slights 
preparation for the pulpit and the cultivation of orator- 
ical powers. It is a mistaken estimate of spiritual life 
which excuses laziness in the natural life. 

Three elements are needed in rounding out an 
ideal and successful pastor: 

1. He must be a strong and gracious personality. 

2. He must be thoroughly consecrated to Christ. 



POIMENICS 109 

3. He must eagerly use all the privileges and oppor- 
tunities of his office. 

1. He must be strong. His ability, integrity, and sin- 
cerity must be worthy of respect. Character is back of 
work. No amount of activity can take the place of 
character. The pastor must be a well-informed man. 
He must be a specialist in the Bible. He should have 
the greatest familiarity with and ability to use "the 
sword of the Spirit' ' in his work. He should be a 
master of theology, an expert in his treatment of all relig- 
ious subjects, whose saying is worth listening to and 
demands and secures respect. He should also be fairly 
well acquainted with the main branches of knowledge; 
with the physical sciences, which treat of Nature, God's 
other book, always in harmony with revelation; with the 
mental sciences, so he may reach the minds of men; with 
the moral sciences, since he is to influence the conduct of 
men. He should be well acquainted with the best liter- 
ature of the world; his mind should be in touch with the 
great thoughts of deathless books, the companion of 
the world's great minds. He should know human nature 
as found in books, in history, and especially among his 
fellow men, whom he is to touch and influence for Christ. 
He must be familiar with the conditions and problems of 
the present day — with the world, which he is to make 
better by his life-work. 

Not only should he be strong, but he should be gra- 
cious. Not only winsome in outward manner, but 
gracious in inner spirit, holding all his strength not in 
proud indulgence but as a "debtor to all men," having 
the spirit that delights to minister to others. 

2. This personalty must be entirely consecrated to 



110 MODEKN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Christ; he is Christ's man, holding all his powers to His 
loving, loyal service. The stronger the personalty and 
the greater the consecration the better the preacher and 
pastor. 

3. Such a man must clearly see and eagerly use all 
the privileges and opportunities of his high, divinely ap- 
pointed office. 

By privileges I do not refer to half fares on railroads, 
to discounts at stores, or to wearing a ministerial garb. 
I heartily advise against acceptance of all such favors. I 
believe they do not help but hinder a pastor's approach 
to men, and lower the general estimation for the minis- 
try. But he should be eager to preach, to conduct the 
worship of the people, to lead in the teaching of chil- 
dren, and to do all the duties of a pastor, not seeing how 
little he can do within the limits of his call, but how 
much and how well he can serve the people in Christ's 
name. 

It is also the pastor's privilege to approach men upon 
the subject of religion; he has many opportunities oi 
serving men in the noblest ways, and all such privileges 
he should be quick to see and eager to embrace. 

The pastor must be a man among men. The 
basal quality of his character must be truth; he must be 
a real man who speaks and acts the truth. He must 
have no deceit, no pretense; he must be open and above 
board in all his views, speeches, plans and acts — one 
whom the church and community know and trust. He 
must aim to excel in all the gifts and graces of the spirit; 
he must not be content with being an average Christian. 
He will be looked up to as an example, and should not 
indulge any tendencies or habits unworthy of being gen- 



POIMEOTCS 111 

erally followed; but he should strive continually to be 
more Christlike. He can not hope to lead others nearer 
to Christ than he stands himself. He must live in the 
presence and power of God if he would have others do so. 

He must cultivate the finest social ability. In 
all his intercourse with his people he must be a gentle- 
man in manners, observing the habits of good society, 
and especially a gentleman in spirit, having considera- 
tion for the rights and feelings of others. He must cul- 
tivate sociability so that he delights in society, and has 
facility in meeting people and influencing them; he must 
be a hearty, genial, pleasing gentleman, and then he 
must use all his social qualities for the highest welfare of 
all he meets. His charm of personality must be a gen- 
eral incentive to Christian living, and be faithfully used 
by him in the service of Christ. 

Certain elements enter into successful pastoral work. 

1. System. There must be a plan which gives the 
right proportion of attention to the different depart- 
ments of work. Many ministers break down from lack 
of system, many more neglect parts of the work. An 
immense amount of work can be done with ease by hav- 
ing a thorough system. 

2. Enthusiasm. Cultivate this in every possible way. 
Delight in one's work leads generally to success. 

S. Optimism. Discouragement and despondency, how- 
ever great the causes for them, can find no place in a 
Christ-filled heart. Look not at the difficulties, but at 
the Master of difficulties, who has given you your work 
to do and is ever present with you. 

" God's in His heaven, 
All's right with the world." 



112 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

The pastor has clear duties to individuals. His 
ministry to congregations in the Church by public 
address should not content him; he should appeal to 
families and individuals. 

However good a preacher one may be, if he does 
not speak to individuals upon the subject of personal 
religion, the individual will soon conclude either that 
the pastor is timid or does not know how, which 
only affects the pastor; or that the pastor has no in- 
terest in him personally; or that his earnestness in 
the pulpit is put on, that he does not believe what 
he preaches, which affects the cause; and what the 
neglected individual feels will be at length felt by the 
whole church and community. The view that religion 
is a matter between each soul and God, and that a third 
party can not speak to such a soul without being rude 
and intrusive, can hardly be sustained generally, but it 
certainly does not apply to a pastor; for the people ex- 
pect him to take an interest in their religious condition, 
and are disappointed and bewildered if he fails to do so. 
Besides, a pastor can not expect the members of his 
church to seek the conversion of souls by personal appeal 
if he himself fails to incite and lead them in this blessed 
work. But to speak to an individual to avoid criticism or 
from a mere sense of duty, while better than not speak- 
ing at all, is not so apt to succeed as speaking with the 
longing to win the soul to Christ. If one has this long- 
ing he will select such times and ways as will be apt to 
lead to success. To speak to save one' s conscience because 
one ought to is good, but not so good as speaking from 
love for Christ and for souls. The love of souls and of 
ministering to their varied needs does away with the dis- 



POIMENICS 113 

tinction between a social and a religious call; it makes 
all calls religious, tho the subject of religion be not men- 
tioned. This love is ever watching and preparing for 
making an appeal that has fair prospects of success; it 
will avoid speaking of religion at wrong times, while it 
is always seeking for and promptly employing the right 
time; the object is not to ease one's own conscience but 
to win the soul for Christ, and it seeks means to that end. 
The pastor has the care of souls; he should be intent to 
ascertain and minister to their spiritual needs. Any 
call that does this is a good pastoral call, tho religion is 
not mentioned; any call that does not do this is a poor 
pastoral call, tho religion is the sole subject of conversa- 
tion. 

The pastor should be in personal contact with all 
classes and ages in the community as well as in the 
church; he should have a deep interest in all that con- 
cerns them, and a'special interest in their spiritual needs. 
All class distinctions should be lost in his interest in im- 
mortal souls. None should be neglected, neither the 
rich nor the poor, the learned nor the unlearned, the 
socially high nor the socially low. The greater the 
spiritual need the greater should be the desire to minis- 
ter. The pastor should not spare himself, but devote 
himself to the people systematically and constantly. 
There should be system in calling, so that none may 
be slighted, so that all may have due attention paid 
them. The aged, the sick, the bereaved, the tempted 
and tried, should have the special attention their needs 
demand. The times of calling should be the most con- 
venient for the people; so thejniniber of calls that which 
is best for the people. The pastor does not consider 



114 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

himself but the sheep. The under-shepherd should be 
like the Great Shepherd in being able to say: "I know 
my sheep and am known of mine/' and he, too, should 
"seek for the lost sheep.' 7 

The main elements of effectiveness in the pas- 
tor's work with individuals are three: 

1. The pastors love for them. This will lead to the 
most careful preparation for calling; he will consider 
the families and persons in their needs while still in his 
study, and think how best to meet these needs. Then 
his love will lead to sympathy, tact, patience, persever- 
ance — all that the human heart can do for the people. 

2. The guidance and power of the Holy Spirit The 
pastor's preparation for calls, as for the pulpit, should 
always be in the earnestness of prayer as well as reli- 
ance upon human skill. The pastor desires in every 
instance to lead to Christ, or to lead to greater Christ - 
likeness, and he may well pray that the Holy Spirit will 
lead him to lead others. 

8. Familiarity with the English Bible. He should be so 
familiar with it that he can use it easily, promptly, and 
effectively in every case: in the sick-room and in the 
inquiry-room, with the bereaved and troubled, with the 
impenitent and careless, with the awakened and anxious 
— to each one bringing the right message from God 
through His Word. 

It will be well, by a system of cards or books, to have 
full information concerning all the families and persons 
in your charge, and also a strictly private book, so 
arranged that if it should fall into the hands <of another 
there will be no clew to the persons described, in which 
such records of former interviews and of the needs dis- 



POIMENICS 115 

covered may be preserved, and be always ready for use 
in preparing for calls. The latter book need have no 
name, but be related to the former by a complicated 
system of numbers. 

In our Eeformed Church family visitation is required 
in the call given the pastor, and the Classis each year 
inquires of the minister and elder if it has been faith- 
fully performed. 

To publish from the pulpit that calls will be made on 
a certain street at a certain time is rarely advisable. It 
is too formal and formidable, it requests too much 
consideration for the pastor's convenience, and often the 
ones he needs to see most will absent themselves. Let 
him sacrifice his convenience and wait on his people. 
The women of the family may generally be found at 
home, but it is often difficult to reach the men. One 
should call upon them in their places of business only 
when he knows his call will not distract or hinder them 
in their work, or if he has special business of sufficient 
importance to justify the call; or he may strive to meet 
them at their homes after business hours; or he may 
seek an appointment with them at a convenient time; or 
he may appeal to them by letter. His love for them 
should be so great that he finds the right way through 
all difficulties. The Eoman Catholic Church forbids 
such family visiting; other Churches permit it; our 
Church requires it. The members of the Catholic Church 
are required to come to the Lord's Supper by means of 
the confessional. They come to the pastor rather than 
expect him to visit them. In some Protestant churches 
the members give notice to the pastor that they desire to 
come to the next Lord's Supper. In the Scotch Presby- 



116 MODBEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

terian Church tokens are given admitting to the Com- 
munion; in this case, too, the members come to the 
pastor rather than expect him to visit them. Formerly 
in our Church an elder was expected to accompany the 
pastor in the family visitation, and it was expected that 
the visit should discover the spiritual condition, with 
particular reference to coming to the Lord's Supper, and 
in some portions of our Church this systematic visita- 
tion with an elder is still observed. 

The manner of fulfilling the requirement of the call 
is, however, not prescribed. The pastor should visit all 
the families of his church frequently for mutual acquaint- 
ance and enjoyment, and he should make faithful use of 
the fellowship thus formed to lead the unconverted to 
Christ and the members of the Church into ever-growing 
Christlikeness. 

Preaching and pastoral work, while distinct, still 
supplement each other both in the minister and in his 
efficiency among the people. The minister is helped in 
the careful preparation of his sermons by conversing 
with his people on religious subjects, getting their points 
of view, manner of thinking and of feeling, and thus 
being stimulated in presenting the Gospel from the pul- 
pit. So he who faithfully preaches the truths of the 
Gospel will be stimulated to follow them up by trying to 
enforce them upon individuals, with the longing to see 
the blessed results in their lives. He should have such 
a system of study and of visiting that one would not 
conflict with or hinder the other. So with his efficiency 
among the people: his welcome by them and his per- 
sonal influence upon them will depend very largely 
upon his power in the pulpit. If he is strong in the 



POIMENICS 117 

pulpit his word will be welcomed and have weight in 
private. On the other hand, his strength in the pulpit 
will be augmented in its effect upon the people by their 
respect for him as a pastor. The striking saying of 
Chalmers, "A house-going minister makes a church- 
going people/' is illustrated by Chalmers himself — a 
great preacher and a great pastor. Had he been weak 
and slovenly in the pulpit, his church would not have 
been so crowded; had he kept aloof from his people, he 
would not have had such an influence upon them. 

The pastor should have an interest in his people, in their 
health and prosperity, so great that when sickness and 
trouble come they instinctively turn to him, and he 
promptly attends to them. The ordinary work of the 
pastor prepares both him and his people for the special 
services they may need. 

When admitted to the sick-room he should remember 
that mental and spiritual anxiety often have much to do 
with bodily sickness. He should always strive to allay 
these, and should guard against awakening^or increasing 
them. He comes, as the minister of Christ, to direct the 
faith of the sick to the gracious Savior, able and willing 
to save all who come to Him. He comes from the lov- 
ing Father to awaken a strong and quiet trust in Him 
which shall allay all care and anxiety. A prayer for 
recovery and for the resting of the soul on Christ is 
proper and generally desired — often requested. The 
call should be short, the manner subdued, but cheerful 
and hopeful, and all that could annoy the most sensitive 
sick one — as cold hands, smell of tobacco smoke, loud 
talking — should be carefully avoided. 

Oftentimes the physician has given directions that no 



118 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

one shall be admitted to the sick-room, or just at the 
time of the call of the pastor the sick one can not see 
him; in all such cases let the call be one of sympathy 
with the family and kindly messages to the sick. In 
cases of bereavement and trouble the prompting of the 
pastor's heart should at once call him to the side of his 
people. Before he goes he should prayerfully and 
tenderly think of the peculiar circumstances of the case, 
so that he comes into deep sympathy with the troubled. 
As the servant of Christ he should be troubled in their 
trouble, bereaved in their bereavement, and then from 
his full heart of Christlike love he will bring to them 
the needed help from the Lord. 

Funeral services should be conducted in harmony 
with the request of the family and the customs of the 
place. Some request that only the burial service be 
used. Generally the local custom is to add either an 
address or a sermon. Both in prayer and in sermon the 
effort should be, not to stir emotion into expression, but 
to quiet it, and to bring comfort to the afflicted. While 
eulogy should not be largely used, still we may speak 
of the good qualities of the dead in a way that approves 
itself to general opinion and that can not be regarded as 
a passport into Heaven. The minister is not to exercise 
the office of a judge either to commend or to condemn. 
Church membership may be mentioned as a proper con- 
fession of Christ on earth, and often there are eminent 
saints whom the whole community delights to honor. But 
the comfort of the afflicted can be more fully reached by 
preaching about the compassion of the Savior than 
about the virtues of the departed, however generally 
acknowledged they may be. Besides, the pastor should 



POIMEKICS 119 

eagerly embrace and wisely use the opportunity faith- 
fully and lovingly to preach Christ to those who do not 
generally attend upon the preaching of the Word. They 
are in the solemn presence of their dead friend or 
acquaintance; they are tender in feeling with the be- 
reaved family; they are at a religious service in which 
they expect religious teaching and appeal, and the pastor 
has a fitting and hopeful opportunity to show to immortal 
souls the glorious Savior of sinners. 

The pastor is not only to share their sorrows with his 
people, he enters also into their joys. The emotional 
nature of the pastor, however deep and strong, would 
wear itself out — or wear him out — if it were wholly ex- 
ercised in cases of trouble; it needs the sunshine as well 
as the shadow. The people also have a right to the fel- 
lowship of their pastor in their pleasures as well as in 
their sorrows. In every congregation, especially in 
large ones, there is much of both; and the transitions of 
the pastor are sometimes great and swift. He should 
place himself in the place of the sorrowful, and just as 
truly in the place of the joyful; and with both he should 
be a fully rounded, genuine, and sincere man, as his 
Master was, in His spirit and for His sake. 

The pastor should not allow his people to come to the 
conclusion that there are some pleasures they may have 
which it would be wrong for him to share; he may 
deprive himself of them for other reasons, not because 
they are sinful. There are not two standards of right. 
With regard to card-playing and dancing, if the people 
wait until the pastor leaves the party and then feel free 
to indulge, their consciences become confused — they for- 
get that God is still there. In this respect also the pas- 



120 MODEEN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

tor must be absolutely true. If lie thinks these things 
are wrong he should prove it to himself from the Scrip- 
tures, and then preach it. If he can not do this he 
should frankly say they are not sinful, that they may be 
abused, and that they have evil tendencies which should 
be carefully guarded against; that he himself has a right 
to indulge in them, but does not because of the tender 
conscience of some and because he has no time or taste 
for them ; and those who choose may follow his example. 
The same course should be pursued with regard to 
smoking, wine- drinking, and theater-going. Do not let 
any one, especially a young person, think he has com- 
mitted a sin unless you can clearly show him from 
God's law that it is a sin. 

The marriage ceremony performed by the pastor 
has the purpose to bring out and make clear a higher 
and holier idea of marriage than the mere bond or con- 
tract of State law would suggest. 

The pastor has several clear duties in the matter: 

1. He should only act within the requirements of the 
laws of the State in which the marriage is made. 

2. He should from the pulpit teach the people God's 
law and ideal of marriage, and who may properly enter 
the marriage state. 

3. He should, as far as possible, uphold parental 
authority. He should urge the gaining of the approval 
of the parents even when the parties are of the age 
required by State law. 

4. He should refuse to recognize the validity of any 
divorce by any State law for other than Scriptural 
grounds. He should in all these respects be careful to 
perform the religious ceremony only where there are 



POIMENICS 121 

good reasons to believe the holy relation it signifies will 
exist. The ceremony itself should be solemnly per- 
formed, and at its close the parties should be pronounced 
husband and wife. 

A rehearsal may, and frequently should, be had, but 
care should be taken that it is not a farce on the one 
hand or the marriage itself on the other. In after- 
anniversary celebrations of the marriage an address may 
be made to the parties, but the ceremony itself should 
never be repeated. 

The pastor should focalize all his work on the 
conversion of souls and their cultivation in Christ- 
likeness. As he should ask himself before preparing 
each sermon, "What do I intend to do with this ser- 
mon ? ?? so before calling upon his people or performing 
any service he should ask himself, u What do I intend 
to accomplish by this service?" He should have but 
one aim— the glory of Christ in the salvation of souls — 
and he should intelligently direct all his efforts to that 
end. Since Christ came to save souls, any growth in 
Christlikeness in the pastor or in his people must include 
a longing for the conversion of souls to Christ. That 
kind of preaching which is specially designed to culti- 
vate Christian character must be deficient in method or 
power which results in a church becoming sluggish in 
seeking the salvation of souls. The pastor should fre- 
quently review his sermon-book, look back over the sub- 
jects of three months or longer, and see whether he has 
placed enough emphasis upon evangelistic preaching — 
the appeal of the atoning death, the drawing of the 
Christ lifted up. The pastor should expect that his ser- 
mons and life-work and the life and preaching of his 



122 MODEKN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

people should lead many to seek salvation in Christ, and 
should encourage and give all needed opportunity for all 
such to consult him who may desire to do so. He should 
frequently preach a sermon of such a character that the 
proper and expected thing would be his announcing 
from the pulpit at the close of the sermon his desire to 
meet at some appointed time and place those interested 
in the matter; it may be best to have the time and place 
then and there, or on Monday evening at his house, or 
his desire to call upon those who invite him. Such an 
invitation would incite parents to speak to their chil- 
dren, teachers to their scholars, friends to friends, on 
their souls' salvation. The pastor should avoid that 
kind of life and preaching which would make such an 
invitation an astonishment to his people. Such an invi- 
tation should always be given a week or two before Com- 
munion, but should not be limited to that season. The 
appointment of a Decision Bay for Sunday-school and 
church has the advantage of expecting and giving an 
opportunity for decision, but the serious disadvantages 
of making these decisions too rare, and of rendering 
mechanical and formal that which should be emphat- 
ically spontaneous and spiritual. 

Besides the steady effort for the conversion of souls, 
securing the addition to the Church of some on confes- 
sion of faith at each Communion, the pastor should lead 
the church to make a special effort to reach the commu- 
nity at appropriate seasons with intent to win a large 
number of souls for Christ. It is important he should 
have clear views of revivals and of the proper efforts to 
secure them. 

Revivals for the conversion of souls may be dis- 



POIMENICS 123 

tinguished from revivals of righteousness. There should 
never be any need of the latter; the people of God should 
always be just and true in their business and social re- 
lations, in summer and winter, at home or abroad, on 
vacation or at work. The united and enthusiastic effort 
of a church to impress the importance of religion upon a 
community may, however, be greater at one time than 
at another, and still be healthful at all times; efforts for 
such revivals should be regularly made. Whenever 
there is both a lowering of the standard of righteousness 
and a cooling of the desire to save souls prevailing in a 
church, then surely a revival of both should be eagerly 
sought. 

A revival of religion may be described as an intense, 
contagious, and wide-spread interest in religion in a 
church and community. It has two characteristics: it 
magnifies Christ's saving power, His atoning work and 
Divine grace; and it results in holy living. 

There are two distinct elements entering into the 
growth and progress of such a revival: 

1. The recognized presence and power of the Holy 
Ghost, 

The Holy Ghost is sovereign, and His work is mys- 
terious. He is sovereign: without Him our work is 
vain. But He is not capricious: we know His mission 
and His character, and may rely upon Him to convince 
of sin through Christ, and to work holiness in Christ. 
Our Savior so teaches in John xvi. His work is myste- 
rious: He converts souls; we can not see how, but we 
know it is by means of the truth. He gives power — the 
baptism of power, it has been called; but the one who has 
His aims and acts on His methods may rely upon His 



124 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

power. The Holy Ghost is as much needed in the con- 
version of a single soul as of a multitude. While He is 
sovereign He reveals Himself in a way to be depended 
upon to bless faithful and earnest labor through the pres- 
entation of truth for the conversion of a single soul and 
for the conversion of a multitude of souls. We honor 
Him by thus relying upon Him and laboring with Him 
far more than by listlessly waiting to be thrilled by His 
mysterious power. 

2. The earnest and believing efforts of Christians. 

A revival as an intense, contagious, and wide-spread 
interest in society is not confined to religion. It fol- 
lows a time of depression, when there may have been 
true interest, but not of an intense and contagious social 
character. Such revivals are known in Trade, in Edu- 
cation, in Temperance, in Police reform, in Political 
affairs, and in Patriotism. Such revivals are not foreign 
to the principles of human nature, are not unhealthy, to 
be guarded against, but wholesome, to be sought. God 
works in all revivals. He has made man capable of 
social enthusiasm, and so lifts him out of low and slug- 
gish life in many departments into lofty and intense life, 
making great advances in social conditions. We may 
reasonably infer, therefore, that when God works in the 
loftiest department of life, the religious revival, it will 
not be in conflict with His methods of work in other re- 
vivals. Among the forces producing revivals in general 
the most easily discerned and prominent are at least four, 
tho of unequal value: 

1. A few earnest individuals who see the need of a 
revival. 

2. A society capable of social enthusiasm. 



POIMENICS 125 

3. An intelligent and earnest effort on the part of the 
few earnest individuals to awaken the social enthusiasm 
by suitable information, appeal, and personal influence. 

4. A time favorable for awakening enthusiasm for the 
particular cause, when the society to be awakened is not 
absorbed by some other interest. These four forces being 
present, there is a reasonable prospect of a revival on 
any subject of general interest to society. It is obvious 
that these four forces must be present in a religious re- 
vival: the earnest spiritual few, the pastor surely among 
them — such revivals begin frequently in the prayer- 
meeting; the church and the larger society, the com- 
munity; suitable information and personal appeal from 
the pulpit and becoming general among the people; the 
favorable season of the year to be seized by the watchful 
pastor. To these four forces we must add the first ele- 
ment already spoken of — the recognized presence and 
power of the Holy Spirit. In a religious revival this is 
always present, the depending, trusting, earnest prayer 
for the Divine power, and the presence of that power in 
answer to prayer. 

Revivals have a history. A large feature of the 
history of religion in all ages is a history of revivals. 
A glance at this history of religious revivals will recog- 
nize these four forces constantly working, accompanied 
by the power of the Holy Ghost, and will quicken faith 
that God will accompany them with His blessing when- 
ever they are faithfully used. 

Revivals will have a future. They will not be out- 
grown and left behind. While human nature remains 
as at present constituted, and this dispensation of the 
Divine grace lasts, revivals will last. The rising and 



126 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

falling of social interest on important matters seems to 
be a law of social life. Such a law of flood and ebb pre- 
vails in all life, vegetable and animal — a kind of rhythm 
of natural life, growing, standing still, acting, resting; 
only in nature there seems a regularity about the pul- 
sating of change, the ebb followed at regular intervals 
by the flood. In the Old Testament dispensation the 
great feasts recurring at regular times seem to have been 
designed by God for the periodical quickening of the 
social religious life. Eevivals are wild and untamable 
in proportion as they are rare, and they are healthful 
and reasonable as they are frequent. The Eoman Catho- 
lic and the Episcopal churches seek revivals in their 
yearly observance of Lent. If our Church should make 
a united, prayerful effort once a year at a suitable time 
to win souls in large numbers to Christ it would place 
itself in line with the workings of nature and of grace, 
and might reasonably expect abundant success. 

The number and character of the special meetings, if 
any, and the methods of reaching decisions will vary 
with times and places. Calling in an evangelist is rarely 
advisable. Each pastor should cultivate his evangelistic 
powers in preaching and working and in leading his 
people, and should adopt the methods most in harmony 
with the taste and ability of both himself and his peo- 
ple. The spirit for the work is the main thing; it will 
seek the proper method. The lifting the hand or rising 
on the feet in an assembly as asking the prayers of God's 
people, or as confessing faith in Christ, is a method 
frequently adopted. It requires some courage; it mani- 
fests the decision and so confirms it; it sets an example 
for others, and has other good features ; but, on the other 



POIMENICS 127 

hand, it may be a matter of mere impulse, or yielding to 
the urgency of the leader or friends, or having a desire 
for prominence, or simply following the example of 
others, and it has other bad features. One of the best 
methods, as both encouraging prompt decision and giv- 
ing at the same time due deliberation and individual 
initiative, is an after-meeting following the general 
meeting for all those specially interested, and this fol- 
lowed by an inquiry meeting. In the after-meeting a 
general address is to be made, short and pointed, and all 
are invited to stay to the inquiry meeting who desire 
to learn more fully of the Christian life with intent to 
follow it. At the inquiry meeting each one should in 
turn receive private counsel from the pastor, or if there 
are many inquirers from the pastor's chosen and trained 
assistants. The one who works with inquirers should 
have a few strong passages of Scripture adapted to each 
case that is liable to arise — passages that are not subject 
to debate or cavil, but clear directions from God's 
Word to a perplexed and anxious soul. The pastor 
should carefully make a selection of such passages for his 
own use, and should train his helpers in such use of the 
Bible. The advantages of this method are that it culti- 
vates a deliberate and intelligent decision, and throws 
about this sacred moment of the soul a proper privacy. 
The public confession of Christ follows by uniting with 
the Church in the regular way. The signing of cards, 
requesting the pastor to call, is also a method fre- 
quently used. 

The prayer-meeting of a church is a matter of 
utmost importance. A church may be regarded as 
having two hands — one stretched up and laying hold 



128 MODEEN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

upon the throne of Divine grace, the other stretched out 
in loving service of mankind. As the pulse beats strong 
in each, the spiritual life of the church is strong. 
The prayer-meeting should have three objects : 

1. The cultivation of the devotional spirit of the 
church. 

2. The fostering of the growth of brotherly love among 
the church-members. 

3. The stimulating the work of the church in the com- 
munity and the world. The pastor should value the 
weekly prayer-meeting very highly for these three pur- 
poses, should advocate it from the pulpit, should per- 
sonally invite to it, and should encourage others to 
invite also. Then the meetings should be so conducted 
that those attending should value them and commend 
them to others for their devotional earnestness, social 
warmth, and practical bearing. 

The pastor should make thorough preparation 
for each meeting — the Scripture and hymns selected, and 
his speech prepared — so he can give himself entirely to 
leading the meeting. As a leader he should be resource- 
ful, tactful, good-natured, and enthusiastic. Topics 
should be selected carefully and for the particular church. 
The lists for the year published by various bodies may 
afford suggestions, but should not be adopted. It is not 
wise to publish a list of topics, but the topic for the next 
meeting should always be announced. A good topic is 
a long step toward a good meeting. Each meeting should 
begin on time. The pastor should always lead, but he 
should remember the meeting belongs to the people. 
The introductory service should be short and varied, 
opening with prayer or reading of Scriptures or hymns, 



POBIEXICS 129 

or the statement of the topic and purpose of the meeting. 
The remarks of the pastor on the topic should not ex- 
haust it, but rather suggest and open lines of thought 
concerning it, and should inspire others to think and 
pray upon it. It should not be a lecture, but a ten min- 
utes' address. 

The body of the meeting should be in the hands of the 
people. They should be encouraged to take part volun- 
tarily, but the pastor should have a number upon whom 
he may call at any time to speak or pray. He should 
not call upon any one for the first time without first se- 
curing his consent and suggesting some theme for the 
first time. The Young People's Society of Christian 
Endeavor and the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip 
should also be used for recruiting not only the attend- 
ance, but the taking part in the church prayer-meeting. 
By the leader's asking a question, or suggesting some 
thought, or calling a hymn, pauses may be broken. A 
pause is not a bad thing in a meeting if it is short, but 
it must not be allowed to prolong itself until it becomes 
a panic of silence. A question-box may be provided at 
the door or in the meeting, and the pastor may answer, 
or call upon some one or more to answer, or may give 
to some to answer at the next meeting. 

The closing of the meeting is as important as the be- 
ginning. It should close on time, so business men may 
know on what to rely. The pastor should sum up the 
spirit of the meeting in a short and pointed address, so 
the meeting shall have an inspiriting effect on the life. 

It is a good plan to encourage the members to linger 
after the meeting for a half-hour's social pleasure. Peo- 
ple should meet at a prayer-meeting on terms of equality 



130 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

in Christ. Brotherly love flourishes only when people 
become acquainted with each other and have much in 
common. 

By having many short prayers and speeches the people 
help each other in sharing their experiences; they grow 
in grace and in personal influence upon each other and 
upon their friends outside the membership; they encour- 
age and stimulate each other in various lines of church 
work; they recognize that the Spirit of God is the power 
binding them together in the brotherhood and sending 
them forth to minister in the world; and, relying upon 
the Holy Spirit by united supplication, they may expect 
to be filled with His power. Such a prayer-meeting 
will not be attended only by a few from a sense of duty, 
but by a great many for the good they give and receive. 



CHAPTER IV 
ARCHAGICS 

Archagics, or the science of leadership, is that 
department of the pastor's work which consists of 
organizing and leading the church as a ministering and 
aggressive force to conquer the world for Christ. Our 
Lord is the great Captain (Acts iii : 15, v : 31; Heb. ii: 10, 
xii :2). "We are His under- captains. The figure of a 
flock now changes into that of an army — an army not 
for destruction and death, but for ministering and sal- 
vation, the army of life. The church is still the field in 
which the pastor is to work, comforting and upbuilding 
the people; but it is now also the force with which he is 
to work in the community. He should cultivate his 
organizing power and his qualities of leadership; he may 
not be a born leader of men, but he has some power in 
that direction, and should have high ideals and should 
constantly labor to attain them. The Church and the 
world demand to-day executive ability as well as preach- 
ing ability. 

The mission of each church in each community is to do 
what Christ did while He was upon the earth. He came 
to save souls; that mission of the church must be the 
first all the while, to save souls. He taught and healed 
in order to save souls, He ministered to all the needs of 
man that he might minister to the supreme need. The 
Church is His life continued; it is to minister to all the 
needs of the community that it may minister to the 

131 



132 MODEEN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

supreme need. Christ, out of His infinite love, gave His 
life a ransom — the atonement for sin was made once for 
all and by Him alone; but His Church as filled with His 
love is to give itself fully for the good of souls; its mis- 
sion, like His, is that of self-sacrificing love. Member- 
ship in the Church is not for the luxury of rest, but for 
the enthusiasm of service. Each church has great power; 
the pastor is to discover it, call it out, and lead it to 
accomplish worthy aims. 

The pastor should have and should awaken two kinds 
of enthusiasm in his church. 

1. The enthusiasm for church fellowship. 

To have rich and poor, cultured and uncultured, ac- 
quainted with and interested in each other on the perfect 
equality of their relation to Christ. The Christ estimate 
of the soul and the Christlikeness in the soul should be 
the theme of much preaching and much living. This 
church fellowship does not break down or do away with 
social affinities and grades, except in the church. But 
the church is one family, swayed by the religious feel- 
ing, having love for Christ and for one another, and for 
the souls He came to save; and the fellowship may be all 
the stronger when there is much variety of social grades. 
A church of the rich alone, or of the cultured alone, 
would not afford such an opportunity for Christian fel- 
lowship as one made up of all classes; nor could it be 
such a bond of society, nor such a power in the com- 
munity. A heavenly family on earth, in which brotherly 
love triumphs over social peculiarities, will be very 
attractive in itself to any community. 

2. The enthusiasm of ministering. 

To have the spirit of making it plain to the whole 



ARCHAGICS 133 

community that the church is for all the people without 
class distinction, and that it is eager to serve the com- 
munity in all possible ways — that it is Christ's continued 
life to help and save men. 
Two extremes of organization are to be avoided. 

1. Having more organization than force to run it. 

2. Having more force than organization to work with. 
The force. Christian life, must be healthfully developed 

by the organization; it must not be strained by too much 
machinery, nor must it lie idle because there is too lit- 
tle; the one is as bad as the other, tho the latter is much 
more likely to happen. There should be a constant in- 
flow of converts, and at once some distinctive church 
work should be given them to do; they are to be trained 
to be enthusiastic, active Christians. The practise of 
Christian virtues in home and business should be supple- 
mented by church activity; but, on the other hand, for- 
wardness and rashness are to be restrained, and young 
converts are not to be discouraged by having too much 
work given to them. 

Three principles should rule in all the organiza- 
tions of a church. 

1. The special organization should not be for itself, 
but for some worthy end; not for the sake of working, a 
mere treadmill, but for the sake of doing something that 
needs to be done. 

Work that costs personal effort, the expenditure of 
time, thought, labor, and money, is attractive to manli- 
ness of all ages, especially to young manliness, and pro- 
motive of it; but it must offer reasonable prospects of 
good results. Much of Christlikeness consists in devis- 
ing difficult and costly work for the good of others. 



134 MODEKN PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

2. All the organizations should tend to the church 
services, never away from them. They should not be 
rivals of these in any sense, but agencies to draw to 
them. The Sabbath worship and preaching and the 
mid-week prayer-meeting should be such that the active 
Christians can not afford to stay away from them, and all 
the activities of the church should not only flow from 
them but lead to them. 

3. The organizations should adapt themselves to the 
community, they should never expect the reverse. The 
Church does not exist for itself, but to save the world; it 
is like its Lord in every community; it came not to be 
ministered to, but to minister. In organizations for 
young men and women it must be clearly seen that the 
young are to be benefited, that their interests are wisely 
sought and earnestly labored for. In seeking individu- 
als and families it must be first in our motive and plan 
(and it must be plainly shown) that their interests are 
sought. In advancing any cause in the community it 
must be made evident that it is for the sake of the com- 
munity. All organizations and all work of the church 
must be not primarily to save the church, but to save 
the community. The church that discriminates and seeks 
mainly for its own good forgets the saying of our Lord: 
u He that seeks his life shall lose it." The law of serv- 
ice is the law of life everywhere in the universe of God. 

The pastor, in taking charge of a church, should not 
be in a hurry to introduce neiv methods. The estab- 
lished methods and customs must be supposed to be the 
best, and they are entrenched in the affections and 
habits of the people. The pastor should get used to his 
people and their ways rather than require his people 



AECHAGICS 135 

to change for his views. After they have given him 
their confidence as a wise leader, and he sees new 
methods and customs are needed, changes may be sug- 
gested. If he is to be an organizer and leader, he must 
first of all become acquainted with the force to be led, 
the ability, taste, and willingness of the people; he must, 
in the second place, become well acquainted with the 
particular needs of the community, and how best to 
meet them; he must then provide the needed organiza- 
tions, and thoughtfully instruct and stimulate his people 
judiciously and enthusiastically to use them. 

These general principles apply to every field. What 
shall be the particular organization can only be deter- 
mined by the needs of each field. Whether some well- 
known organization is adopted or an entirely new one 
invented, the best way to start it is to explain it and the 
need it is designed to meet fully to the people, and to 
call for volunteers. The pastor should work in and with 
the organization, but his influence should in general be 
advisory only, tho all church organizations should be 
under the acknowledged and unquestioned government 
of the church itself. 

There is little danger of any organization of a church 
being a disturbing element in it if it has a needed work 
to do, and if Christian fellowship prevails, and if the 
pastor is in the attitude of saying, not " go friends, " nor 
even "come friends," but, "now friends, let us do so 
and so." A working church is apt to be a harmonious 
and prosperous church. "He that loses his life for My 
sake shall save it ? ? applies to a church as well as to an 
individual. The Sunday-school will be fully considered 
under the department of Pedagogy. 



136 MODEEN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

The Y. P. S. C. E. is established in many churches 
and may well be established in all; it is as suited for 
small churches as for large, for country, town, and city 
churches alike. Its pledge, when explained, need deter 
no one, as it simply voices the unspoken pledge of 
every Christian. The pastor, however old, should 
always be one of the young people. He should attend 
their prayer-meetings as regularly as any member, not 
to lead except on rare occasions, but to take part with 
brief counsel or prayer. There should be a spirit of 
faithfulness to the pledge fostered; so the society should 
foster attendance on Sunday services, its time of meeting 
should be selected with this aim, and it should lead to 
attendance and participation in the church prayer- 
meeting. 

The committees into which the society may be 
divided afford an excellent means of directing the enthu- 
siastic energies of the young people to needed work in 
the community. 

The Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, with 
its rule of prayer and of service, is also an excellent or- 
ganization well adapted to any church. The pastor 
should meet with them in their regular meetings for 
Bible study and prayer. This organization affords an 
excellent school of prayer, and should constantly supply 
new voices to the church prayer-meeting, as well as en- 
larged attendance. It is an excellent organization also 
to lead men to begin attending church services. It also 
affords many agencies for ministering to the needs of 
men, and for awakening the spirit of brotherhood. 

The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle 
is well adapted to minister to the intellectual needs of 



ARCHAGICS 137 

many communities in country and town, and in some 
cities. 

A Young Men's Sunday Evening Club, to foster 
attendance upon the evening service, may be given a 
large share of the conduct of the evening service in sug- 
gesting subjects for the sermons, and arranging the 
music and programs for the service. 

A Good Citizenship Club, organized on the plan of 
the United States Senate, gives excellent opportunity for 
parliamentary debates, and for considering the civil and 
political needs of the community, whether country, town, 
or city. This latter society appeals to the men of the 
congregation who are not members of the church, and 
the members of the church belonging to it have the 
opportunity of cultivating acquaintance and fellowship 
with such. A church dinner for men once or twice a 
year, bringing all the members of the congregation 
together, and discussing church and community matters, 
may be given by the Brotherhood or the Good Citizen- 
ship Club. 

Many features of the Institutional Church in large 
cities may be adopted in smaller cities and towns. 
Many towns need a large room well lighted and warmed, 
with papers and games, open at all times, and especially 
in the evenings, as a resort for men who would other- 
wise drift to the saloon, while sewing-circles and cook- 
ing-schools would also meet a great need. The church 
having Christ's spirit of service will find many needs 
calling it into exercise, and will never lose sight of the 
greatest need: that of leading lost souls to the Savior. 

The Institutional Church has its worship and fellow- 
ship at the center of many agencies to provide for those 



138 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

within its reach, generally working people, all that can 
render their daily life happy and elevating. Self-respect 
and self-reliance are promoted by classes for training in 
useful work, by employment bureaus, by loan . associa- 
tions, by medical care, and generally by brotherly inter- 
est. Church settlements have their paid and volun- 
tary workers dwelling among the people to be served, 
with the purpose of educating and strengthening the 
home life of the people, of bettering the environment, 
and showing and helping all to higher kinds of living. 
Many of these methods may be adopted, and certainly 
the spirit of such work should prevail in all churches. 

The care of the poor of the church demands not 
only money but personal care; where there are many, a> 
Pastor's Aid Committee is a good supplement to the 
work of the deacons. It is a good thing, when possible, 
to have a judicious, tactful person act as friend to each 
poor family, not only to convey the money of the church 
where needed, but mainly to give counsel and encour- 
agement — the help of sympathy. 

The church should provide in its nature a brother- 
hood which should excel all secret and fraternal associa- 
tions in heartiness and helpfulness. Instead of objecting 
to Freemasons, Odd-Fellows, and kindred organizations, 
the church should foster a more genuine and hearty 
brotherhood than they afford. The life insurance and 
sick benefits, as a matter of business assessment, should, 
however, be left to companies designed for such work, 
and the church should confine itself to spontaneous 
ministry. 

Many churches should have Rescue Missions con- 
ducted by their Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, or 



AECHAGICS 139 

some special organization, but not by the church 
authorities. To be successful the meetings of such a 
mission must be continuous, every night in the week; but 
on Sunday night there should be a short meeting before 
church service. Then the workers, and those they can 
persuade to accompany them, should attend the church 
service, while one or two keep the mission-room open to 
welcome those who may come in; after church service 
the mission meeting should be resumed. It is the mis- 
sion of the Church to rescue the fallen; she must not ex- 
pect them to come to her, but she must go out into 
the highways and seek them. 

A church should freely use all proper advertising 
agencies to let the people know of its existence, and 
of its desire that they should attend its usual and special 
services and enjoy all its privileges. There should not 
be the slightest ground in any church for the faintest 
suspicion of any persons that they are not wanted at the 
services or in the fellowship of the church. There 
should be ushers, a welcome committee, a visiting com- 
mittee — all that is needed to make sure that no one is 
slighted or neglected; and, above all, there should be a 
hearty spirit of Christian love filling these organizations 
and acting independently of them. Sinners in the 
presence of the gracious Savior do not need introduc- 
tions before they can be gracious to one another. The 
Church stands for Christ among men; whatever would 
interest and draw Him should appeal to the Church. 

There are three principles that should prevail in 
the financial affairs of the church. 

1. The church should set an example to the com- 
munity of fair and honest dealings. It should not incur 



140 MODEBN PBACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

obligations without reasonable prospect of promptly and 
completely fulfilling them. It should pay as it goes 
promptly and fully, not incurring debt for its running 
expenses. This rule also applies to the pastor in his 
personal affairs. 

2. In raising money it is desirable that all the people 
should take part for their own self-respect and culture; 
and that a constant supply should be in the treasurer's 
hands for all church purposes as they arise. The renting 
of pews gives a steady supply, and is probably the best 
method for that purpose; it also gives each family a 
location of its own in each church; but it classifies 
people in the church pews according to their riches, and 
there is danger of excluding some of the poor. The sub- 
scription plan, with weekly, monthly, or quarterly pay- 
ments in envelopes collected at the church service, and 
with family sittings located according to priority of 
preference, requires more care to keep up the supply of 
money steadily equal to the demand. It can be kept up 
year after year only when there is much church loyalty 
and enthusiasm for fellowship and work; but these 
should always exist. 

3. The principle of contributing money both for 
church support and for the work of the church in the 
community and the world should be systematic and 
proportionate giving. The pastor should practise this 
himself; because he is giving his time and talent to the 
work of the Lord does not exempt him from giving also 
of his income. He can then heartily advocate it among 
his people; he is consciously consistent. The law of the 
tenth is no longer in force, but the example of that law 
and practise and its approval of God can never be set 



AECHAGICS 141 

aside, and Christians should not fall under that stand- 
ard, but may go far beyond it. Whatever proportion is 
set aside for the work of the Lord must be according to 
the conscience of each individual considering himself as 
the steward of God. 

Sometimes money is raised by church fairs and sup- 
pers. When this is done there should be reasonable 
charges and a careful avoidance of anything approaching 
a lottery. There is sometimes a development of church 
fellowship in getting up and conducting such fairs, but 
the tendency is to diminish the proper spirit of giving 
in the church, and to place the church before the com- 
munity as a business institution seeking money rather 
than as a fellowship in Christ seeking to serve. 

Each church should eagerly embrace the agencies 
at its hand for reaching beyond its own community out 
into the world to the ends of the earth. The Denomina- 
tional Boards should be faithfully sustained. The pastor 
should make himself familiar with their workings, and 
should inform his people fully of the work they are 
doing, and of the privilege they afford to each member 
of the church of carrying on the work of Christ in the 
world. 

The Women's Foreign and Domestic Missionary so- 
cieties have auxiliaries in almost every church, and are 
doing excellent work, and should be heartily sustained. 
But the main work of information and incitement should 
be from the pulpit; this advocacy and the general prin- 
ciple of systematic and proportionate giving should pre- 
vail in every church; however poor or small it may be, 
each church should contribute to this general work, 
particularly to Foreign Missions. 



142 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

The pastor should seek also to fill the ranks of the 
ministry, that men may be well prepared and abundant 
for the preaching of the Gospel in our own and in 
heathen lands. The pastor should be such a devoted 
man, such a fine preacher and pastor, and doing such a 
noble work that parents would think of nothing better 
for their sons than to be such ministers, and the bright 
young men in the church who want to live for some 
noble purpose would be stirred with the ambition to be 
such men and do such work. 

The pastor should foster in his church not only de- 
nominational loyalty but a spirit of sympathy and 
cooperation with the undenominational agencies of the 
Church at large. The Bible and Tract societies rely 
upon the churches in general for their support; we 
should do our share. The Y. M. C. A. in each town or 
city is a bond of union of the churches, and each church 
should give workers and all needed financial support for 
the excellent work in which it is engaged. Wherever 
the Salvation Army exists, tho some of its principles 
and methods may not be approved, it should receive the 
sympathy and support of the church. It is doing the 
work the church ought to do, and until the church does 
it fully and in a better way it ought to sustain the 
army in its work. 

The pastor should foster the spirit of Christian fel- 
lowship with sister churches in the community. We 
may not agree on all points of doctrine, government, and 
worship; let us look at the things we have in common 
in Christ, and for His sake develop and manifest these 
in the community. There should be no spirit of prosely- 
ting from such churches; there is work enough to do in 



AECHAGICS 143 

the world and souls enough who are without Christ to 
engage the full energies of each church. If your minis- 
try is attractive and your church warm-hearted in fellow- 
ship and work, and some come from churches where such 
conditions do not prevail, they can not be kept out, but 
they should not be sought. The much better result of 
the fervor of your preaching and of the life of your 
church would be to have it spread to other churches. 

The graduate, on leaving the seminary, should 
settle in the largest field that opens to him — not largest 
in point of salary it may be, but largest in opportunity 
and demand for work. He should not go to a small, easy 
field with the plan of further study and preparation, 
and of then seeking a larger place. He is already well 
trained, a college and a seminary graduate, and ready 
for his work; let him not seek a chapel of ease, but a 
field for work, remembering that nothing develops like 
responsibility faithfully met, nothing trains for larger 
work like hard work systematically done. Then let him 
be content in that field, and do his work there as if there 
were no other field in the world. Let him work for his 
Master's sake and for His approval. Let him love his 
work and his field, and adapt himself and devote him- 
self so thoroughly to it that that church will always 
want to keep him, and all other churches learning of 
him will want to get him. Such a minister will be con- 
stantly alive and growing, and need not fear "the dead- 
line, ? ' which, as a rule, only exists for men already dead. 

When it is said that a minister fifty years of age finds 
it hard to get a new field, while a lawyer or physician of 
that age is in the height of his power, it should be re- 
membered that the lawyer or physician is not seeking a 



144 MODEEN PBACTICAL THEOLOGY 

new field; the height of his power is in his established 
practise, where he is well known, and that is all a minis- 
ter should expect or desire. It may occur with the most 
faithful minister that for the sake of the church he has 
served he should seek a new field. When this is the 
case he should not hesitate, tho he has to take a 
smaller field. The church does not exist for the minister, 
but the minister for the church. As a rule, however, 
the minister should be devoting himself so entirely to 
his church that he has no time or desire for looking for 
another charge. Churches should seek ministers, not 
ministers churches. 

The Foreign Mission field has special claims upon 
candidates for the ministry. There seem to be at least 
three qualities one should possess, in addition to the 
general qualities of the minister, in order to go to the 
foreign field: 

1. A specially strong physical constitution. He should 
give fair promise of being able to stand trying climates 
and a radical change in diet and manner of living. 

2. A specially gifted mental constitution in the matter 
of power to acquire a foreign language, so as to be able to 
use it efficiently in proclaiming the Gospel to those born 
to it. 

8. A specially gifted social and spiritual constitution. He 
must be strong enough spiritually to live his life alone, 
without the support of congenial spiritual companion- 
ship. He must also have such a social instinct that the 
repelling characteristics of the inferior race with which 
he is to live shall not hinder, but rather appeal to it 
and develop it. 

"When one having these qualities has the call of his 



AKCHAGICS 145 

Savior to the foreign field he has a special honor and a 
glorious opportunity. We in this Christian land carry 
on a work already established, we lay a course of stones 
in the already lofty temple of a Christian civilization; 
the missionaries of the Cross in heathen lands lay the 
foundation-stones of a new civilization to the glory of 
God and the welfare of succeeding generations of man- 
kind, and hasten the coming of the Kingdom of God 
over the whole race. We who can not go, should admire 
the heroes who sacrifice social ties, who risk their lives, 
and cast themselves into the hideous darkness of heathen- 
ism to carry the blessings of the Gospel to the whole 
earth. Tho we can not go, our hearts should be filled 
with the missionary spirit; our hero brothers on the 
other side of the earth and we in our native land are 
alike under the command of our Lord. If we have the 
Spirit of Christ the whole earth is our field; we can not 
limit His Spirit; our interest and work must be world- 
wide. 

Wherever one settles, and however studious and 
active in his work he may be, he should ever remember 
that character is back of his work. The basal quality 
of character is truth, that speaks and acts truth because 
it is truth, the reality of manhood, true in God's sight. 
The minister strives to make men conscious of God's 
presence; he should ever be conscious of God's presence 
himself. The culture of the devout life in himself 
should never be neglected. He must have his hours of 
prayer and meditation of God's presence as well as 
hours of study and work. The quiet hour of the soul 
must be carefully kept if the soul is to be quiet in 
the stress of life — quiet with consciousness of the pres- 



146 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

ence and strength of the Lord. Where this longing is 
fostered the experiences of the earnest souls who have 
enjoyed the Savior's deep revealing will be of help and 
stimulus. Books of devotion, as Thomas a Kempis's 
" Imitation of Christ"; biographies of earnest men, 
as Henry Drummond; sermons to the soul, as Eobert- 
son's "The Loneliness of Christ"; spiritual poems, as 
Longfellow' s i c Christus, ' y particularly i c The Golden 
Legend"; old hymns, " Jesus, Lover of My Soul"; 
modern hymns, "Peace, Perfect Peace in this Dark 
World of Sin ' ? ; prayers, the outgoings of devout souls, 
the prayers of the ages, the Litanies of great churches — 
above all, the Bible experiences in psalm and prayer 
and life of the saints of old — will stir the soul to seek its 
renewal in the source of life, to abide in Christ. 

We must have special times of communing with 
Christ if we would have Christ with us in our life and 
work at all times — -just as one must be often on his knees 
if he would have the spirit of praying without ceasing. 

The pastor has an important part in the government 
of his particular church and of the denomination. 
This in our case is clearly defined in the Constitution of 
the Reformed Church in America. The provisions of the 
Constitution are in the main so clear that they can not be 
misunderstood. The pastor's duty is to be familiar with 
the Constitution, that he may keep his church and him- 
self within its clear provisions. The study of it now, 
article by article, in the class is simply the introduc- 
tion to that familiarity which should be carefully main- 
tained through life. Many of the troubles arising in 
church government come not so much from difficulty in 
construing the Constitution as from culpable ignorance 



AECHAGICS 147 

of its plain provisions. We shall consider the nature of 
a constitution, the history and spirit of our Constitution, 
and some principles of interpretation and application. 

Nature of a constitution. An evangelical church 
is a part of the Holy Catholic Church. The invisible 
Church includes the whole number of those in all lands 
and in heaven who are united to Christ by a living 
faith. 

The visible Church includes the whole number of those 
who by professing this union with Christ are members of 
some church organization on earth. The test of a true 
church is pure doctrine, pure worship, and a pure dis- 
cipline or life. Each denomination applying this test to 
others should be charitable in judgment, and in apply- 
ing it to itself should seek purity in the highest degree. 
The one and only standard of this purity is found in the 
Holy Scripture. A Church constitution is the Creed, the 
Ceremonies of Worship, and the Eules of Government 
adopted by any particular organization of the visible 
Church. It is a human production based upon the 
Scripture, in that it classifies the principles of the Scrip- 
tures with regard to truth, worship, and life, and applies 
them to present conditions. Its purpose is to bind into 
fellowship, culture the Divine life, and promote the effi- 
ciency of the organization. Such constitutions arose as 
a matter of expediency and necessity in the earliest times 
in individual churches, then in these individual churches 
becoming associated mainly along local and then along 
national lines, and since reformation times in denomina- 
tional lines. There may be two kinds of constitutions; 
the unwritten, which is a growth made up of accumulat- 
ing precedents, as the British National Constitution, 



148 MODEEN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

and the written, which, makes provision for change in 
amendments, as the United States National Constitu- 
tion. 

As with nations, so with the Church, the written con- 
stitutions are developed from the unwritten ones. The 
individual churches combining formed precedents for 
further and larger combinations, and these precedents 
were at last arranged in a written constitution. Our 
Church has a written constitution. 

History and spirit of our Constitution. In 1568 
twenty churches in Holland formed a synod at Wesel 
on the Ehine, and agreed on the Eules of Order which 
form the germ of our present Constitution. All of 
these churches were organized under the government 
of elders, according to the Scriptural principle (Acts 
xiv:23, xx : 17-28) which lies at the basis of our Con- 
stitution, and were represented in this synod by elders. 
These Eules of Order were revised by following synods, 
and finally by the Synod of Dort, 1619. The churches 
established in this country were under the care of the 
Classis of Amsterdam, in Holland, until 1771, when they 
became independent, and formed a classis or synod of 
their own, but they observed unchanged the rules of the 
Synod of Dort until 1792. The Synod of 1788 began the 
work of translation of these rules into English and their 
revision. The Synod of 1791 called all the ministers and 
an elder from every church to give their counsel in form- 
ing the Constitution, and the Synod of 1792 completed 
the work. This Constitution was revised by synods, 
with the approval of classes, in 1833, and again in 1874, 
and has since been amended in several particulars, and 
is our present Constitution. 



AECHAGICS 149 

This Constitution embraces the Creeds or Confessions, 
the Liturgy, and the Rules of Government We will now 
confine our attention to the Constitution in its special 
sense — that is, the Eules of Government. 

Before the Synod of Wesel and the formation of a 
written constitution each individual Eeformed church, 
by the unwritten constitution formed of precedents, 
cleared of the errors in government as well as in creed 
and worship of the Eomish Church, showed itself as the 
outgrowth of the Apostolic Church in the form of gov- 
ernment by elders (Acts xiv:23, xx: 17-28), and so 
deserved the name, the Eeformed Church — that is, the 
New Testament Church formed again. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the great head of the Church, 
is the source of all authority. When He taught the dig- 
nity and worth of the individual, He showed that in the 
Church the authority from Him was not in any king nor 
aristocracy, but in the people. 

There are four great principles which we have 
received through our Holland ancestry, and which are 
the emerging of the teaching of Christ and the life of the 
New Testament Church from the errors of Eome: 

1. The source of authority is the people of the indi- 
vidual church. 

2. The people rule by their chosen representatives, or 
elders. 

3. Individual churches by these representatives, or 
elders, combine with each other in a denomination. 

4. The bond of this combination is a written constitu- 
tion. 

These same principles prevail in our national govern- 
ment. We as a nation and a Church owe our civil and 



150 MODEEN PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

religious liberty to Holland, and through Holland to our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

Principles of interpretation and application. The 
four principles applying to a national constitution apply 
with equal force to a church constitution: 

1. The limits of the Constitution must be recognized. 
While it is the fundamental law, its province is not to 
make laws itself, but to define who shall make them. It 
constitutes and empowers the law-making, administra- 
ting, and judging bodies in the Church. 

2. The source of authority is the individual church 
governed by elders. This individual church has bound 
itself with others by the Constitution to the extent of its 
provisions, but, beyond the powers clearly defined and 
distributed therein, whatever reserved powers may re- 
main belong to the individual churches. All other 
bodies have only the powers specially given to them. 

3. Articles defining and giving powers are to be 
strictly construed; but when a power has been clearly 
given, the administration of that power is to be liberally 
construed — e.g., Art. IX., § 4, ^[ 4, authorizes the Boards 
of the Church. 

4. Articles on related subjects are to be construed 
harmoniously. 

The principle applying to the national Constitution 
applies also to the Church Constitution, that the duty 
and privilege of interpreting it rest upon every member 
of the Church. If he is in doubt of any particular article, 
there is nobody empowered by the Constitution to clear 
up his doubts, nor can such a power be conceived of as 
being provided for all cases. He must decide for him- 
self, and act upon his own responsibility. The courts 



AECHAGICS 151 

of the Church, as of the nation, can pronounce upon such 
questions only when properly constituted cases are 
brought before them; then the decision of the highest 
court is the final interpretation of the article in question. 

The principle of loyalty to the Constitution applies 
to the Church as well as to the nation. It may not be 
the best conceivable constitution — there may be particu- 
lar articles of which one does not approve, he may seek 
in all proper ways to have desirable changes made; but 
until such changes are made he owes obedience to the 
organic law of his Church. 

We may congratulate ourselves, both as citizens and 
members of the Eeformed Church, that both national and 
Church constitutions are so worthy of our hearty loyalty. 

The Constitution treats fully of four subjects: 

1. The officers of the Church. Of these there are four 
classes: Ministers of the Word, Teachers of Theology, 
Elders, and Deacons. Articles 1-4 describe these. 

2. The assemblies of the Church. These also are four: 
The Consistory, the Classis, the Particular Synod, and 
the General Synod. Articles 5-9 constitute these, and 
define their legislative, administrative, and judicial 
powers. 

S. The customs and usages of the Church. Article 10 
prescribes the administration of the Sacraments, the 
order of worship, and the instruction of the children. 

If. The discipline of the Church. Articles 11-14 de- 
scribe the judicial processes of trial and appeal. The 
Constitution closes with an article, the fifteenth, provid- 
ing for its own enforcement and amendment. Besides 
the general study in the class of each article of the Con- 
stitution in its order, we may note some special features 



152 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

arising from the combination of articles on related sub- 
jects. 

I. Concerning Ministers of the Word. The Con- 
stitution makes provision for a pious and educated 
ministry. To the Classis is given the sole power to 
license to the preaching of the Gospel and to ordain to 
the ministry of the Word. But the Classis is not per- 
mitted to license any one it pleases on its own terms. 
The examination upon prescribed subjects must be 
passed, and only two classes are permitted to enter this 
examination: those who have passed the required course 
of instruction in one of our theological seminaries, and 
those who are exempt from this requirement, in whole 
or in part, by a special dispensation of the General 
Synod, made upon the application of the Classis, upon 
sufficient reasons. The general requirement is, there- 
fore, that one must have a professorial certificate from 
one of our own seminaries in order to be admitted to an 
examination for license, and the exception can only be 
by the act of the General Synod in a special case for 
special reasons — a difficult and cautious but not impos- 
sible exception. In consistency with this requirement, 
the Constitution prescribes the greatest care in the selec- 
tion of Teachers of Theology. To the General Synod is 
given the sole power to elect such teachers; each Classis 
in the church has the right to nominate one for that 
office, the Synod may add three nominations of its own, 
and must then proceed to an election with the utmost 
deliberation and care. The one eligible to office must 
be an ordained minister of the Word; and when elected 
lie must devote himself exclusively to his office, he can 
not be a pastor of a church nor a member of any church 



AECHAGICS 153 

assembly, but is constantly a teacher of theology under 
the appointment of the General Synod, and answerable 
alone to that supreme assembly of the Church. And the 
Seminaries themselves are under the entire control of the 
General Synod. 

When one is licensed to preach by a Classis the license 
continues until revoked, but it may be revoked for 
cause in the discretion of the Classis. The license is only 
to preach; he may not administer the Sacraments, nor act 
as a member of the consistory; he is not an officer of the 
church, but only a candidate for the office of minister of 
the Word. The student, after entering upon his studies 
in the theological seminary, must not transfer his church 
membership to a church belonging to another classis. 
So each classis of the Church has the right and duty of 
caring for and at last licensing its own members. The 
one licensed is thereby commended to the whole Church. 
When he receives a call to be the pastor of any particular 
church he is to be examined by the classis to which that 
church belongs, on the prescribed subjects, and is then 
ordained to the ministry. A licentiate can become a 
minister only when called to be a pastor of some church, 
or when sent to the foreign mission field by the whole 
Church, or when some classis directs him to mission 
work in our own country, and then only upon his pass- 
ing an examination on the prescribed subjects and being 
ordained by the classis. A graduate of a theological 
seminary belonging to another denomination can not be 
admitted to an examination for license without a dispen- 
sation from the General Synod, but a licentiate of an- 
other denomination in fellowship with ours may be 
admitted to examination for ordination. 



154 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

2. Concerning Elders and Deacons. The elders 
are described in Acts xx: 17-28 and the deacons in Acts 
vi:l-6. By our Constitution both elders and deacons 
are in active office for only two years; they may be re- 
elected to the consistory, but if not, they become mem- 
bers of the Great Consistory. One need not be a deacon 
before he is made an elder. 

They must be chosen from the male members of the 
church in full communion. In forming new churches 
only the male communicants have the right to vote in 
their election. In established churches, where they are 
elected by a popular vote, all the members of the church 
over eighteen years of age, male and female, have a 
right to vote. When a classis forms a new church, only 
the male communicants received by letters of dismission 
from other churches have a right to vote. The classis 
constituting the new church has no right to receive mem- 
bers on confession of their faith; that right is specially 
given to the elders of a church, and is nowhere given to 
the classis. 

3. Concerning Consistories, The consistory, in 
calling a pastor, may devise its own way of finding out 
the preference of the people. If a congregational meet- 
ing is called, the consistory should plan how its prefer- 
ence is to be expressed; it may prescribe who shall have 
the right to vote, whether all members of the church 
regardless of age and sex, or all members of the congrega- 
tion, or only heads of families, or only pewholders or 
subscribers to the salary. The way of consulting the 
people is discretionary with the consistory. The consis- 
tory's call to the pastorate is subject to the approval of 
the classis. The whole Church in the Constitution has 



AKCHAGICS 155 

prescribed the nature of the call, and the individual 
church has no right to change or set aside any of its pro- 
visions or relieve the pastor from any of its obligations. 

The clause in each call concerning the pulpit exposi- 
tion of the Heidelberg Catechism is further enforced 
by Art. 6, § 13. This is a distinctive feature of our 
Church spirit and policy, intended to secure an intelli- 
gent membership of strong convictions and deep expe- 
rience. The Catechism is a progressive statement of the 
great truths of our religion as they are experienced by 
the believer, and the faithful preaching required will 
make our Church excel among the Churches in a de- 
voted membership. 

A stated supply is in no sense a member of the consis- 
tory, nor has the consistory any power, even of courtesy, 
to make him a member. The consistory is the corporate 
body holding the property and making the contracts of 
the church. 

It is possible for the consistory, at its regular meetings, 
to pay so much attention to the temporal concerns of the 
church that the spiritual affairs are slighted. To avoid 
this it is an excellent plan to have a regular order of 
business, in which the spiritual affairs have the first con- 
sideration. 

The Constitutional question (Art. 6, § 5) should be 
asked in the prescribed words, and a record of its having 
been asked should be inscribed in the minutes. In case 
an unfavorable answer is given, the steps to be taken are 
described in the division upon Discipline. 

4. Concerning the Classis. Each classis is com- 
posed of the ministers and an elder delegated by each 
consistory. This elder need not be a member of the con- 



156 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

sistory, but may be a member of the Great Consistory. 
The Olassis is the only body having the power of forming 
new churches. When the church is within its borders, 
it may be formed by a classical act or by committee. 
When the church is in distant parts, the missionary sent 
to gather such churches is regarded as the classical 
agent. 

The Classis may dissolve the pastoral relation upon the 
application of both parties, or of either, the other party 
objecting, upon hearing of both sides; but it has no power 
to take the initiative or to dissolve the relation, both 
parties objecting. Art. 7, § 2, is to be construed in 
harmony with Art. 2, § 15. 

5. Concerning the Particular Synod. The four 
elders designated from each classis need not be members 
of the Classis at the meeting electing them, nor of the 
consistories therein represented, but must be members of 
the Great Consistories within the Classis. 

6. Concerning the General Synod. The delegates, 
both ministers and elders, are from the Classis and nomi- 
nated by the Classis, but they are appointed by the Par- 
ticular Synod, which for sufficient cause, to be judged of 
by itself, may appoint other than those nominated, and in 
this case also the elders may be members of either the 
acting or the Great Consistory. The General Synod is a 
continuous body. The delegates are appointed for a 
year, and hold office until their successors take their 
places. This is also the case with the Particular Synod. 
The Classis is a continuous body, not only in the min- 
istry, but in the elders delegated by the consistories, who 
are generally elected for a half year only, and hold 
office until their successors take their places. 



AECHAGICS 157 

Concerning the customs and usages, the directions are 
easily understood and should be faithfully obeyed. The 
importance of the subjects treated is considered in our 
studies of Liturgies and Pedagogy. 

7. Concerning discipline, the plain directions are in 
the line of three great principles: 

1. The object of discipline must give the sole motive. 
Popular prejudice and private grudge are to be carefully 
excluded. 

2. The offense for which one may be disciplined must 
be clearly defined in Scripture. The laws of the Church 
must be in full harmony with the Scriptures. 

3. The rights of the accused are carefully guarded. 
He is held innocent until he is clearly proved guilty. 
Discipline must be undertaken only when it is a clear 
duty, and then it must not be neglected. It must be 
carried on only in a Christian spirit; fidelity to Christ is 
always in harmony with the best interests of the soul of 
the accused and with genuine love for that soul. Care 
should be taken not to begin a trial unless there is a 
reasonable prospect of the church being successful in 
proving the accused guilty of the offense. 

The utmost care should be taken to fully understand 
and carefully observe each step of the process and trial 
so plainly prescribed, so that every right of the accused 
is carefully guarded from the beginning, and so that if 
an appeal is taken the church may be fully sustained. 

The court from whose decision an appeal is taken can 
never be made a party to the case. The original parties 
remain the only parties in the case through all the 
appeals until the final supreme court is reached, from 
whose decision there can be no appeal. 



158 MODEEN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

The court in which a case begins — e.g., the consistory— 
virtually acts in three capacities: as a grand jury, to see 
whether there is a probability of proving the accused 
guilty; as the prosecuting party, to bring the accused to 
justice (to this end one of its members must represent it) ; 
and as a court, to pronounce upon the case. The two 
former capacities should lead it to be specially careful 
to guard against all prejudice in the latter capacity. 
But in the appeal it does not appear as the court, but as 
the prosecuting party in the case. The record of the 
evidence should be in the words of the witnesses and 
subscribed by them. 

8. Concerning amendments. The General Synod, 
in considering the u final declarative resolution, ?? may go 
back of the returns of the Classis in its discretion to dis- 
cover the mind of the churches. The whole history and 
spirit of our written Constitution show that the source of 
authority is in the individual church, and in the amend- 
ment, as in the formation of the Constitution, the effort 
is to discover the mind of the churches. 

While our Church is governed by elders, it differs 
from some other denominations so governed in four par- 
ticulars : 

1. The source of authority and the reserved powers 
are not in the Classis or Presbytery, but in the individ- 
ual church. 

2. The elders are in active office not for life, but only 
for a term of two years. 

3. Our church has in its consistory and whole polity 
the deacons as a part of the church organization, as in 
Acts vi. 

4. The consistory of elders and deacons, all members 



AECHAGICS 159 

of the church, form the corporate body holding the 
property and making contracts; and so we have no body 
of trustees, some of whom, or all, may not be members of 
the church. So we do not call ourselves by a name indi- 
cating government as Presbyterian, but in government 
as in creed and worship we go back of all the errors of 
Rome, and come as near as possible to the early Church 
reformed, and call ourselves the Eeformed Church. 



OHAPTEE V 

PEDAGOGY 

Pedagogy is the science of education, the science of 
which teaching, including training and discipline, is the 
art. Now, science is the systernized sum of our knowl- 
edge of any great department of God's work. In its 
growth there are: 

1. The search for facts — the observation and investiga- 
tion include forces and laws. 

2. Judgment of these facts — a discrimination of values, 
a comparison and classification of them. 

8. Reasoning upon these facts — an attempt to discover a 
theory which will account for all the facts, forces, and 
laws. It is obvious that the study of the science of edu- 
cation is needed to attain the art of teaching. 

Education is the drawing out or development of 
man's powers harmoniously and in due proportion for 
his complete living in relation to himself, to society, 
and to God. 

Plato says: "It is the perfection of man's powers. " 
Dante : "It fits man for eternity. ' ' Milton : "It regains 
what man lost in the Fall." Herbert Spencer: "It 
prepares man for complete living." Eosenkranz: "It 
develops the reason in its effort to become like the Infin- 
ite One." President Hyde: "It fits one to earn his liv- 
ing by the exercise of trained powers, to support the 
institutions of society by intelligent appreciation of their 
worth, and to enjoy the products of art and civilization 

160 



PEDAGOGY 161 

through the imagination and taste. " President Butler 
says: "It is the adaptation of a person, a self-conscious 
being, to his environment, and the development of 
capacity in a person to modify and control that environ- 
ment. ' ? This environment is in two divisions — physical 
and spiritual; the latter is that accretion in knowledge 
and its results in habits and in conduct which we call 
civilization. Civilization, or spiritual environment, 'may 
be divided into five classes: man's science, literature, 
art, institutional life, and religious beliefs. Education 
is a whole; leave out any of the above classes and it is 
defective. 

Education, as described by these great masters, in- 
cludes the development and training of all man's power, 
both physical and psychical, the acquisition of all the 
knowledge needed for growth, guidance, and enjoyment, 
and the attainment of skill in the application of this 
power and knowledge to the purposes of life. 

The main departments of pedagogy are three: 

1. Historical. This treats of the methods and attain- 
ments in education of the different races of mankind. 
It is the gathering of the vast experience of the race. 
Parents have taught and trained their children from 
the beginning. Nations have developed in different 
directions — the Greeks in intellect and love of the 
beautiful, the Eomans in will and love of power, the 
Hebrews in the moral sense and love of righteous- 
ness. The Bible abounds in principles and methods of 
education. 

2. Descriptive. This treats of the methods, principles, 
and ideals of education prevailing among all races in the 
world to-day. Primitive methods may be observed still 



162 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

existing in many nations, while the most advanced 
methods are found in Germany, France, England, and 
America, where teachers of all grades are required not 
only to master subjects, but to be skilled in developing 
the powers of their scholars. 

3. Practical. This endeavors to make the largest pos- 
sible use of principles proved valuable, and to attain 
the best ideals of methods and results. It is not vision- 
ary, as if trying to make angels, but reasonable, based 
upon the knowledge of the powers natural to man, and 
of the forces within reach for their development. 

Pedagogy should be taught in a theological 
seminary for at least three reasons: 

1. The minister's self- education. He should be a 
growing man, constantly developing his powers in his 
life-work. 

2. His work is largely one of education, of instruc- 
tion, and training in the complete living — the Christ- 
life. 

3. He should be the wise leader or director of a large 
educating force, consisting of the parents and the 
teachers in day-schools and in Sunday-schools. 

The first principle of pedagogy is the study of 
the child, or the being to be educated, whatever the age. 
The matter of first importance is not the subject to be 
taught, but the being to be educated; the subject is only 
a means to the end; even the Gospel of Christ is a 
means to manhood. This fundamental principle applies 
to all grades of education — to teachers in the day-school 
and in the Sunday-school, and to preaching the Gospel 
in Christian or in heathen lands. 

This principle may be readily accepted in arithmetic. 



PEDAGOGY 163 

The old plan was to consider the subject first; then the 
method was often dull and repellent, a mere strain on 
the memory. But the child does not exist for arith- 
metic, but arithmetic for the child. The method now is 
to awaken an interest in the child and draw out the 
powers to understand, in order to calculate. It should 
be accepted just as readily in religious truth. The Holy 
Spirit converts, but what does He convert and how ! The 
human soul by means of the truth. How to reach the 
soul, then, with the truth should be the aim of those who 
would work with the Holy Spirit. The avenues to the 
soul are to be discovered if we would be the Holy 
Spirit's messengers to carry along those avenues His 
truth and power. Psychology may be called a map or 
picture of the teacher's or preacher's avenues to the 
soul; not only must he reach the soul through these 
avenues, but the soul expands through them. 

In the study of the child or being to be educated 
there are two distinct subjects, each of vast importance, 
to be thoroughly considered. 

1. The general elements. These belong to a child as 
a child — elements of childhood, of human nature. 

2. The special characteristics. These are the peculi- 
arities of each child, largely due to heredity and en- 
vironment. These latter, of course, are largely modifi- 
cations of the former. The child under consideration is 
still a child, tho a very peculiar one. The consideration 
of the general elements is a wise preparation for the 
further consideration of the special characteristics, and 
this is a wise hint for ministers in their study of human 
nature. 

The general elements are the powers of the child 



164 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

capable of being educated. The human being has three 
distinct classes of powers: 

1. The power to feel. The sensibility. 

2. The power to know. The intellect. 

3. The power to choose. The will. 

The power to feel comes first into exercise, and is 
fundamental throughout life. It has two great depart- 
ments: Bodily Feelings and Psychical Feelings. 

Bodily Feelings have three divisions: 

1. The Senses. The general are the organic sense, 

vital sense, and temperature. The special 
are sight, seeing, hearing, touch, taste, smell, 
and muscular resistance. 

2. The Appetites. Of hunger and thirst; for exer- 

cise, rest, and sleep; and that of the sexes. 

3. The Instincts. Of play, self-regard, self- 

defense, self-preservation. 
Pedagogy pays much attention to the bodily feelings. 
It seeks to develop the healthful exercise and control of 
the appetites and instincts and the general senses. The 
aim with regard to the special senses is to cultivate them 
into full and harmonious action. It recognizes that the 
powers of observation give the material not only for all 
further mental action, but that their full development 
increases brain power. It values, therefore, not so much 
the things seen as the power to see them. It trains to 
see clearly, in detail, completely, and correctly. The 
minister should pay much attention to this in his self- 
education. He should be a close observer. (1) In his 
address to his people. He can convey his thoughts and 
feelings only so far as they see and hear him, for the 
tone of voice and action of body are not little matters, 



PEDAGOGY 165 

but of utmost importance. (2) In his influence with 
parents. These are the teachers of young children at the 
time when the senses are to receive their first impulse 
and direction. 

Psychic Feelings have also three divisions: 

1. The Emotions. These are of three kinds: 

The Esthetical — the feeling of the beautiful. 
The Ethical — the feeling of the right. 
The Eeligious — the feeling of a Supreme 
Being. 

2. The Affections (so named because they affect 

the object). These are benevolent or male- 
volent. 

3. The Desires (so named because they crave the 

object in order to affect one's self). These 
have as their opposites the Aversions. 
A desire strong enough to incline the soul to 
secure or repel the object is an inclination 
or repulsion. Becoming habitual, it is a 
disposition. Made intense by the presence 
of the object, real or imaginary, it is a pas- 
sion. 
With regard to the Psychic Feelings, pedagogy 
aims to develop the early and normal unfolding of the 
Esthetical, Ethical, and Eeligious emotions, and to give 
the affections and desires a benevolent rather than a 
malevolent direction. That system of education is sadly 
defective which leaves out of its conscious purpose the 
evolving and training the Psychical Feelings, or any one 
of them. Our day-schools should endeavor to evolve 
the love of the beautiful and of the right; if they are 
debarred from cultivating the love of God, there is all 



166 MODERN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

the greater need that the Church should do this for all 
the children she can reach. 

The power to know has three great departments: 
(1) The Presentative, (2) the Representative, and (3) 
the Thought Department. The Presentative provides 
the material for the other departments to work upon; 
they are entirely dependent upon it. The Representative 
recalls and remolds by the memory and the imagination 
all that the Presentative has gathered for it. 

Pedagogy tries to strengthen the memory by 
obedience to its two great laws: 

1. The law of Association. Obedience to this law 
strengthens the memory by grouping the things to be 
remembered by their — 

(a) Contiguity. E.g., 400 B.C. Socrates-Malachi. 
(&) Succession. E.g., the Battles of the Revolution, 
(c) Correlation. E.g., the Invention of Printing, the 
Discovery of America, and the Reformation. 

2. The law of Preference. Things are more easily 
recalled if (a) they are attended by deep feeling, espe- 
cially in harmony with taste; or (&) they are gained by 
intellectual labor, are worked for; or (c) they are asso- 
ciated with the act of the will, commanding attention. 
The acquisition by child or man is of value only as one 
is able to use it when wanted. After-wit is only an 
annoyance. 

Pedagogy also cultivates the imagination by 
calling into exercise its three great powers: 

1. Its modifying power (taking one thing for another). 
E.g., a stick for a horse. 

2. Its constructing power (enlarging or diminishing 
things)* E.g., blocks builded into a house. 



PEDAGOGY 167 

3. Its creating power (making new combinations). 
E.g. j creating the great hunter Orion into a constella- 
tion. The young child at play, the student in college, 
the minister on his walks and in his study may cultivate 
the imagination by the exercise of these powers. The 
only materials for imagination are from the presentative 
powers. 

The Thought Department of the power to know 
has these three divisions: 

1. Conception, to form words (names of conceptions 
arise from comparing and classifying the things per- 
ceived). E.g., a tree. 

2. Judgment, to form sentences (statement of facts). 
E.g., the tree grows. 

3. Eeason, to form conclusions (to attempt to reach 
general truths, even the universal truth). E.g., the tree 
grows because it is alive. 

Pedagogy so directs instruction and training from 
the earliest stage throughout the whole life that the 
least interference and the most help shall be given to the 
normal development and harmonious unfolding of the 
various departments of the power to know. Knowledge 
of child nature is to the teacher what knowledge of plant 
nature is to the gardener, who adapts soil, sunshine, 
water, and all his care to the plant, not hindering but 
helping its healthy growth. The mind grows. It must 
have time to grow — to force it does not produce a strong 
growth. But the growth should not be hindered, nor 
dwarfed, nor perverted; rather it should be wisely culti- 
vated and directed, that it may result in a strong, fully 
rounded, well-proportioned mind. 

The aim of pedagogy is not so much the amount of 



168 MODEEN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

things known as the cultivation of the power to know as 
a whole. The development of one power at the cost of 
another is discouraged, the neglect of any power is con- 
demned. E.g. j the committing to memory words as mere 
sounds is discouraged ; the thought power must know, 
the imagination must see, the meaning of the word, and 
then the memory acts. 

The power to will has three great departments. The 
action of the will is limited to those matters placed be- 
fore it by the other powers. It may then simply choose 
among the matters so presented and stop there, or it may 
purpose to act and stop there, or it may go on and exer- 
cise its full power, and command and enforce action. 

Its three departments are thus to choose, to resolve, and 
to command. 

Pedagogy seeks not to crush the will, but to de- 
velop it to full action, to exercise it to choose wisely, 
resolve promptly, and command firmly. It aims so to 
conduct instruction and training that indirectly through 
the culture of all the powers, and directly by constant 
exercise, the will shall choose the true and good not 
weakly but strongly, resulting in resolution and com- 
mand. The minister whose supreme aim is to reach the 
will by pulpit and personal appeal must follow the steps 
of pedagogy just as fully as the mother with her child 
or the teacher in the school. These steps are at least 
three: 

1. The matters presented to the will for choice should 
be clearly and fully described. This is done by the 
power to know, mainly using material directly given by 
the power to feel. The will is now compelled to choose 
among the things fairly seen. 



PEDAGOGY 169 

2. The feelings are recognized as the solicitors of the 
will 5 their work is persuasion to a particular choice, but 
they can not coerce the will to that choice. The will has 
no power directly to awaken or check feelings; we can 
not feel happy by willing to feel so. But since the feel- 
ings are largely awakened or checked by knowledge, the 
will may call memory, imagination, and thinking into 
such action as will awaken or banish certain feelings. 
Since the feelings only solicit, the will can dwarf certain 
feelings by refusing to yield to them, and cultivate other 
feelings by yielding to them. So also the will may grow 
weak, and may come largely under the power of any 
class of feelings by constantly yielding to its solicita- 
tions, while that class of feelings as constantly grows in 
power. 

The will may thus choose for its solicitors the higher 
feelings, the esthetic, ethic, or religious feelings, or the 
lower feelings — the appetites and senses. The will may 
so constantly choose the higher feelings that these become 
steadily increasing habits of feeling. By this action of 
the will the desires become inclinations, dispositions — 
even passions. Of course the reverse is equally true. 
The action of the will is not, therefore, limited to a 
single choice, but has a large influence in confirming or 
changing character by a series of choices. 

3. The Conscience, which may be called the Judge of 
the Ethic sense, has a large influence on the will. The 
power to judge whether a thing is right or wrong may 
be claimed as belonging to the power to know; but the 
conscience has two special powers belonging exclusively 
to itself: 

(a) Before a choice is made it gives its clear decision 



170 MODEEN PKACTtCAL THEOLOGY 

that the will ought to choose the right and refuse the 
wrong. This voice of conscience may be kept clear and 
made stronger by the will acting in harmony with it, or 
it may be made blurred and weak by the will repeatedly 
acting in opposition to it. 

(&) After a choice is made the conscience gives its 
clear verdict, not only condemning the choice or approv- 
ing it, but condemning or approving the will for making 
it. It does not take into consideration the strength of 
the desires or appeals; it confines its verdict simply to 
the right or wrong of the action of the man. 

Pedagogy follows conscience in the preference of 
motives to be presented to the will, insisting they should 
be those of good rather than those of profit, moral rather 
than prudential. Pedagogy regards the presentation of 
motives as an important part of education in family, 
school, or pulpit, in that they foster the will in the 
choice of right for right's sake. The principal classes 
of feelings to be used in training the will to prompt and 
strong action are: 

1. The desire to excel — e.g., ranks or grades (a) in 
man's sight; (6) in God's. 

2. For approbation — e.g., by equals, by superiors, by 
God. 

3. For power — e.g., full life, immortality. 

4. For knowledge — e.g., of things, of persons, of God. 

5. For future good — e.g., in this life, in the future life. 

6. A sense of honor — e.g., man's standard, God's 
standard. 

7. A sense of duty — e.g., obligation to man, society, 
God. 

Each desire has its reverse, a repulsion to be avoided. 



PEDAGOGY 171 

Obedience to authority arising in a sense of duty will 
develop from control by others, by which one is made to 
do right; to self control, by which one wants to do right. 
This is the highest form of appeal to, and exercise of, the 
will. Thus pedagogy seeks to present matters for choice 
clearly, to arouse the higher class of feelings as solicit- 
ors of the will, and through cultivating the will into 
strong and full exercise, to give the conscience a favor- 
able hearing. 

Pedagogy values very highly the order in which 
the general elements develop from earliest childhood, as 
its aim is to work with nature in fostering normal 
growth. The order seems to be the power to feel first, 
the power to will next, and the power to know last. 
The earliest training should be in directions that do not 
need to be corrected or changed in advancing life. The 
power to know, awakening last, depends for its develop- 
ment upon the acuteness and energy of the senses, the 
intensity of the emotions, affections, and desires, and 
the force and constancy of the will. The earliest train- 
ing is, therefore, of the senses, the emotions, and the will. 
In the development of the power to know, the Presenta- 
tive power develops alone for the first year or two, and 
maintains the amount then reached through life. The 
Representative powers awaken during the second year — 
the memory first, and then the imagination, which out- 
grows the memory after the sixth year. The Thought 
powers awaken last. Conception comes first, judgment 
next, reason last. Judgment and reason outgrow con- 
ception after the sixth year. The inductive power of 
reasoning awakens earlier than the deductive. At six 
years the Presentative and Representative powers form 



172 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

two-thirds of the child's nature; at twelve years, one- 
half; after that age the Thought powers increase, but the 
others do not diminish. Beecher's saying, "To hold a 
popular audience one must paint pictures or tell stories," 
is psychologically true. The closest reasoning is made 
more effective by apt illustrations, since the strongest 
Thought power is built upon and accompanied by the 
Presentative and Eepresentative powers. 

The point of contact is the place of common 
knowledge where teacher and scholar meet — this is the 
starting-point for instruction and training. The knowl- 
edge of the elements of child nature help us to discover 
this " point of contact " with the child mind. It is evi- 
dently on the side of the Presentative rather than the 
Thought powers, markedly so in early life and largely 
so in advancing life. This is true of the heathen mind 
as well, since it is often an undeveloped mind. Our 
Lord's teaching by parables, and His use of illustrations, 
is based upon this principle; He never drew His illus- 
trations from the carpenter's trade, for tho He was 
familiar with it, the people were not. The power of the 
child to learn and develop along the lines designed by 
the instruction can only be awakened by touching some 
common point of common knowledge, "the point of 
contact." So the soul of any one is insulated from sal- 
vation until the point of common knowledge is found. 
No one ever gets hold of anything by pushing it away 
from him. To say at the outset to child or heathen, 
"You are wrong," pushes away; it is superiority that 
repels. To find some point of common interest or belief 
takes hold of the hearer's mind; it is appreciation that 
draws. Whatever truth is common to heathenism and 



PEDAGOGY 173 

Christianity is the " point of contact/' and the wise 
missionary begins there. 

The three great principles or maxims of pedagogy 
are: 

1. Teaching both in matter and method must adapt 
itself to the mind of the scholar. The chief quality the 
teacher should possess and cultivate is that sympathy 
with the child that promptly and constantly adapts both 
matter and method of teaching to the child nature. This 
instinctively discovers the good traits and powers of each 
child, and tries to help it to its own normal development. 

2. Teaching must awaken the mental activity. The power 
of learning, rather than the thing learned, is the impor- 
tant thing. The aim of the good teacher is to gain the 
cooperation of the scholar, to rouse the mind into activ- 
ity, not one power only or mainly, but the whole mind- 
to learn, realize, and hold the truth. True teaching is 
leading to think. 

3. Teaching must foster the normal unfolding of the 
mental powers. The relation of the subject to be taught 
to the act of learning is that of orderly progression. 
The powers of the mind are to be normally evolved by 
progression in teaching. The orderly progression of 
truth, each new truth being the truth next in order to 
that already kuown, must be presented in a way that 
shall promote the orderly progression of the scholar's 
mind. The orderly progression of the truth is needed 
for the understanding of the truth, but it is needed as 
well to promote the orderly progression of the mind. 
The great words of pedagogy summing up these prin- 
ciples are Adaption, Cooperation, and Progression — 
excellent words for the pulpit as well as the school. 



174 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

These great principles of pedagogy are found in the 
constitution of the mind and never change. Many teach- 
ers, tho ignorant of them, instinctively obey them and 
are good teachers. Teachers may know them and act 
contrary to them; they are sure to be failures. We 
should clearly know and faithfully follow. 

The methods of teaching are the modes of applying 
these principles, and are liable to variation. If the prin- 
ciples are understood and obeyed, a wide range of 
methods may be of great value. The aim should be 
" sound principles " in a " variety of methods. M Skill 
often lies in using different tools, sometimes in being the 
thorough master of but one. 

The three great methods of teaching are: 

1. Questioning. This has three objects: 

First, it leads the scholar to define his knowledge, and 
thus fixes in the mind the truth already known; second, 
it leads him to see the limit of his knowledge, and so 
gives the starting-point for further instruction; third, it 
leads him to be discontented with his ignorance, and so 
quickens the feeling and conscience to stimulate to efforts 
to advance. Questions are to be carefully prepared for 
these three ends. 

2. Telling. Questioning has its limits ; it can only 
draw out of the mind what is already there or may be 
inferred. New truths must be communicated by the 
teacher, or the teacher must direct where they may be 
found. Lecturing, use of text-books, and directing 
courses of reading and investigation lie in this method. 

8. Showing. This is accomplished by means of ob- 
jects, drawings, experiments, demonstrations presented 
directly or by a vivid description, or the scholar may be 



PEDAGOGY 175 

directed in his search for them. Illustrative teaching 
awakens interest and explains; its object is twofold: to 
make the scholar see, and to cultivate his power of 
seeing. 

There are two great kinds of teaching; these often 
combine, and the transitions from one to the other are 
frequent and not clearly marked. 

1. The Inductive — from particulars to generals. The 
basis of this is investigation, close observation, and then 
reasoning upon the results of observation. This follows 
the orderly development of a growing mind, and should 
be first used. 

2. The Deductive — from general to particulars. This 
supposes an already developed mind until the third 
power of the Thought power — i.e., the Eeasoning power 
— has been awakened, and its use has to be delayed until 
that time. Text-books are themselves the product of 
induction — e.g., those of geology; but their use is largely 
the deductive kind of teaching. Even when the teacher 
takes his scholars into the field of investigation he must 
be familiar with the classifications, and must direct his 
scholars what to look for and how to find things. 

The two kinds are to be combined in religious teach- 
ing, as we shall soon see. 

Pedagogy, in its study of the general elements of 
human nature, pays special attention to its growth. 
There are three periods of this development: 

1. Childhood, in which the power to feel prevails. 

2. Youth, in which the power to know prevails. 

S. Adolescence, in which the power to choose prevails. 

Important changes are those from childhood to youth, 

at about six to eight years of age; from youth to ado- 



176 MODEKN PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

leseence, at about fourteen or sixteen years of age; and 
into maturity, which is reached at about twenty-two or 
twenty-four years of age. 

A great law of psychic action is that every act of the 
soul leaves an increased power and tendency to act in 
like manner. Power and tendency are the necessary 
resultants of all psychic action. This law runs through 
all the periods and changes of advancing life. The 
period of childhood gives its cultured power and ten- 
dency to feel to youth. So the period of youth gives its 
developed power to know to adolescence. The period of 
adolescence gives its cultured power to will to manhood. 

A pedagogic principle based upon this law governs 
the selection of the kind of teaching for these periods of 
life. It is that each branch of instruction and training 
should be introduced at the point where the scholar's 
mind begins to unfold in that direction, and should pre- 
vail through the period when the scholar's mind has a 
natural instinct for it. 

The kind of teaching that should prevail in child- 
hood is: First, the inductive, that which trains the sense 
powers to the character desired for life. (Begin in 
childhood to train children to be close observers.) 
Second, that which awakens the psychic feelings and 
gives them the character desired for life. (Begin in 
childhood to secure in children right emotions for the 
beautiful, the good, and toward God. ) 

The religious instruction appropriate to childhood 
is: First, giving the incentive and example of true liv- 
ing, the parents and teachers showing the virtues of 
faith, hope, and love in their lives. (Practise precedes 
theory. Life is given its direction by living. To see 



PEDAGOGY 177 

and feel life stir the instinct to live that kind of life. ) 
Second, telling Bible stories that show the lives of men 
and women trying to serve God and man in varied cir- 
cumstances, beginning with the Old Testament and 
advancing to the New Testament's higher and fuller 
living. 

The kind of teaching that should prevail in youth is 
a wise combination of the inductive and deductive kinds. 
The inductive should continue and be slowly combined 
with the deductive. The thirst of youth to know should 
be fostered, and the investigating and reasoning powers 
should be given the quality desired for life. 

The religious instruction appropriate to youth is 
the personal life of the Bible continued, with a gradual 
introduction of the great truths of the Bible, to be rea- 
soned about for their acceptance. The theory of life 
naturally follows life itself, and is thus properly intro- 
duced to the power to know as explaining and confirm- 
ing practise. The stage of doubt often arising in youth 
should be met in a rational way. It is the unrest of the 
mind, the awakening thirst for truth ; it should not be 
frowned upon, but met with frank sympathy by the 
Bible theory of life — and met at the time it arises, before 
it becomes confirmed by neglect or unreasoning opposi- 
tion. We do not scold our children when they are 
hungry, but feed them. 

Religious instruction should compare favorably both 
in principles and methods with secular education, the 
Sunday-school with the day-school. In the day-school the 
deductive text book and the inductive experiment and in- 
vestigation are combined. So in the higher schools botany 
and geology are taught, not by aimless and haphazard 



178 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

examination of the fields, but by a text-book leading to 
as thorough an examination as possible — and this is in 
harmony with the normal unfolding of the mind. 

The truths of the Bible, like the truths of nature, are 
of great variety, and are scattered in perplexing and fas- 
cinating confusion. Many catechisms set forth these 
truths in clear descriptions and in a progressive system. 

The catechisms should be used as deductive text- 
books and the Bible as the inductive field of investi- 
gation. The simple catechisms should be introduced at 
the beginning of the period of youth, and the more 
complex later, but both should be taught as guides to 
Bible investigation. 

As an example we select the subject of sin : 

u The First Lessons in Christian Truth " says : 

"I very often do wrong and fail to do right, 
God calls my failure and wrong-doing sin." 

The Heidelberg Catechism says: "I am prone by 
nature to hate God and my neighbor." 

The Compendium says: "I am prone to transgress 
the commandments of God in thought, word, and deed." 

The Westminster Catechism says: u Sin is any want of 
conformity to or transgression of the Law of God." 

The New Evangelical Catechism says: "Sin is any 
thought or feeling, word or act, which either is contrary 
to God's holy law or falls short of what it requires." 

Now use this catechism teaching on one subject as a 
guide to investigating the Bible. It is always a fascinat- 
ing thing to judge the lives of others. What kind of 
lives did the men of the Bible— from Adam to Paul — 



PEDAGOGY 179 

live in this single regard, judged by the natural con- 
science of the child ! How does the life of Christ com- 
pare with these lives ? 

Progress can now be made to the revealed law — the 
standard of judgment. When was it given ! How sum- 
marized ! Does it awaken a response in our conscience *? 
Further progress follows in what the Bible teaches about 
sin: What is the Bible's definition ! How does the Bible 
regard it? Still closer comes the subject to the con- 
science and the will. Then the progress to the next step 
of truth of the catechisms: How to get rid of sin. Last, 
the setting forth of the Savior. Time could and should 
be taken on each important step in the progressive state- 
ments of truth, to make a thorough study of the Bible. 

Some defects in religious instruction in the family 
and in the Sunday-school arise either from the want of 
system in teaching the Bible, or from the lack of inves- 
tigation of the Bible in teaching the catechism. 

Teachers are rarely gifted enough to arrange a good 
system of truth for their use; they therefore teach the 
Bible aimlessly and at haphazard, or in connection with 
their own ill-considered and disconnected dogmas. On 
the other hand, the catechism is taught often as dry dogma 
and mainly to be committed to memory, without trying 
to show how its truths are found in myriad forms in the 
Bible field. The combination of the inductive and de- 
ductive methods will correct such serious defects. 

Besides the interest awakened in the scholar by having 
the wise direction of the catechism in his search for 
truth in the Bible, the progressive order of truths in the 
catechism fosters the orderly development of the power 
to know along the lines of religious instruction. It is 



180 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

thus in harmony with the laws of the mind, with true 
pedagogic principles of the orderly unfolding of all 
man's powers; it stirs the emotions, fixes in the memory, 
accumulates force upon the conscience, and appeals to 
the will, thus tending to the conversion of the soul in 
youth or early adolescence. 

The kind of teaching that should prevail in adoles- 
cence is the continued combination of the inductive and 
deductive kinds for the continued development of the 
powers to feel and to know, but now specially presenting 
ideals, standards, and motives developing the power to 
will in right choices for mature life. Adolescence is the 
period of quickened intellect, asking earnest questions; 
of quickened conscience, seeking ideal righteousness; of 
quickened social sense, thirsting for companionship; of 
quickened choice, longing for high aims and purposes in 
life. Instruction should meet and satisfy while further 
stimulating these awakened powers, and aim to develop 
the will to a strong choice, resolution, and command for 
right living. 

The religious instruction appropriate to adolescence 
is the orderly, progressive teaching of the period of youth 
continued, with a direction and accumulation of force 
upon the conscience, and of appeal upon the will, lead- 
ing to a life decision for the service of God. 

The purpose of religious education is to make 
good Christians. This is to be held in view through the 
whole course, but is to culminate at the period shown by 
the God-given laws of the soul as the best period for 
life-long decisions. In the religious teacher neither zeal 
without knowledge nor knowledge without zeal will 
avail ; both should exist in good degree to enable one to 



PEDAGOGY 181 

lead the scholar to become a devoted follower of Christ. 
We should aim by wise methods to secure the conversion 
of the scholar at the age of adolescence. The Eoman 
Catholic, Episcopal, and Lutheran churches wisely strive 
in their confirmation classes to bring the adolescent into 
Church relationship. Dr. Starbuck and Dr. Coe have 
recently conducted careful investigations in the psychol- 
ogy of religion, and conclude that the average age of 
men at conversion is sixteen and of women is fourteen, 
thus indicating the age when the Church should intelli- 
gently purpose to bring her educational methods to the 
point of conversion. 

The special characteristics or peculiarities of the 
individual child are either the encouragement or dis- 
couragement of the teacher, and call for all possible sym- 
pathy, patience, and skill, that both the bright and the 
dull, the willing and the unwilling, may have the special 
treatment each needs. The two forces having large 
influence in making up these individual peculiarities 
are : 

1. Heredity, the force of ancestry, immediate and more 
remote (how far back none can tell), molds not only 
the physical and mental powers, but also the emotions, 
dispositions, and force of will. The general elements 
just considered belong to all children, are the qualities 
belonging to mankind, just as all men have noses. The 
individual peculiarities come from ancestry by heredity, 
as does the shape of each nose. 

2. Environment of native land and home and all social 
conditions molds character also. 

The extent of the influence of these two forces is diffi- 
cult to estimate, but the slightest consideration of the 



182 MODERN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

subject is calculated to awaken in the teacher a great in- 
terest in each child and to call out one's best effort to 
meet each case. 

Christian pedagogy has three purposes ivith regard to 
heredity : 

1. It recognizes its full force and adapts its teaching 
not only to child nature in general, but to the individual 
peculiarities of each child. 

2. It has confidence in the truth it teaches, and in the 
grace of God acting through it to renew not only human 
nature in general, but each individual soul, however 
dense or perverse it may be. 

3. It recognizes heredity as a power to be used for the 
future, and that training a child is training future gen- 
erations — how far ahead none can tell. It gives the 
force of heredity a new direction and tone. " To reform 
a man you must reform his grandfather," " To train a 
child you must begin a hundred years before it is born/' 
are very discouraging sayings at first sight, but upon 
further reflection they become very stimulating. Train- 
ing a child of dense parentage, that is discouraging; but 
we should persevere. We have the truth and grace of 
God, and in training the child we are training the pos- 
sible father of many generations — are training the child 
to be born a hundred years hence. In this way Chris- 
tianity has come to us from the teachers who taught our 
heathen ancestry. Christian pedagogy is not the victim 
of heredity, but the master of it. 

Christian pedagogy has three purposes with regard to 
environment : 

1. It adapts itself to its great power. Eecognizing 
that the educational and religious life of a nation centers 



PEDAGOGY 183 

in the family, it strives to enlist and qualify the parental 
and all home influences in its behalf. 

2. It believes the grace of God is not baffled by en- 
vironment, but is able to rescue from the most unwhole- 
some. Courageously and hopefully it acts as it believes. 

3. It strives with great interest to improve environ- 
ment, to change a bad into a good one, or to make an 
entirely new one. It thus views environment as a great 
training force, and endeavors to capture it from evil and 
use it for good. 

Christian pedagogy views the conversion of children 
as more easy of accomplishment, more liable to be 
thorough in its nature and more important in its results, 
than the conversion of adults. 

1. It is more easy of accomplishment. Children are 
easier to reach and influence just before and at the age 
of adolescence than later in life. God indicates in the 
nature of the child that the age of life choices should be 
used for Him. The culmination of instruction in re- 
ligious truth is to look for conversion at this age. 

2. Conversion at this age is more likely to be thorough 
and permanent, because it comes in the normal order of 
the development of man's powers; it also antedates, and 
so prevents, the formation of reverse choices and habits 
of thought and life; also it forms a kindly environment 
in the associations of life then forming — friendship, busi- 
ness relations, especially marriage. 

3. It is more important in its results than the conver- 
sion of adults. The conversion of the middle-aged, es- 
pecially of hardened sinners, is more thrilling and 
makes more excitement in a community — the rescuing 
of a man seems the greatest work possible; but the sav- 



184 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

ing of a child, while quieter, is more important. Pre- 
vention is not only better than cure, but there is no 
cure for the wasted life of the adult, no cure for the bad 
influence he has put forth for many years; the man is 
saved, but his life is more than lost. In saving the 
child the life of culture and influence is saved also. In 
saving the child the powers of heredity are also enlisted, 
while in saving adults only the remaining influence of 
parents over grown children is saved — the heredity has 
been on the side of sin. Twenty men and women of 
fifty years of age are converted; they have a probability 
of living to sixty-five, so three hundred years of life on 
earth are saved; but there is no possibility of heredity 
in their case. Twenty boys and girls of fifteen years of 
age are converted; they have a probability of living to 
sixty-five, so one thousand years of life on earth are 
saved, and the boundless possibility of heredity is en- 
listed on the side of Christianity, and not only of hered- 
ity, but of a new environment. Ministers should spend 
much of their strength on their sermons and in striving 
to reach adults; they may well be thankful if adults, 
heads of families, are converted; but they should re- 
member both in sermons and in pastoral work the chil- 
dren, and may well joy in their conversion — the conver- 
sion of the society and the families of the future. 

A great pedagogic maxim is that teachers are to be 
taught to teach; they are to be trained in their work, are 
to become specialists. This pedagogic maxim, u Teach- 
ing teachers to teach, " runs through the Bible. The 
calling of Abraham and the training of Israel was that 
they might teach the world. The schools of the prophets 
taught the teachers of Israel. The brotherhood of 



PEDAGOGY 185 

Christ and his disciples was a college of teachers under 
the Great Teacher. The Church to-day is being trained 
and inspired by her Lord to disciple the whole world. 
The State has adopted this maxim; it has its standards 
and examinations of teachers and its normal schools; it 
fosters schools of pedagogy, and it constantly cultures 
its teachers by teachers' conventions under expert 
teachers. 

The Church has splendid opportunity to carry out 
this maxim, and should heartily embrace it. The pastor 
of each church should regard himself as the leading 
teacher of a large teaching force. It should be a large 
part of his ideal and effort to make this the very best 
possible teaching force. In carrying out this niaxim, 
" Teaching teachers to teach/' the Church has a marked 
superiority over the State in three particulars: 

1. The pastor is a specialist in teaching. He is found 
everywhere — one in every church, many in every com- 
munity, 

2. The force of teachers is larger and better than the 
State can secure. The parents, under the Church inspira- 
tion and training, are the God-appointed teachers. The 
Sunday-school teachers are prompted by their love of 
Christ and of souls; they form a large body of teachers 
desirious of doing their best for the children and willing 
to respond to any wisely directed training. 

3. The Church has a fascinating field of investigation, 
the Bible, and the very best text-books, the catechisms, 
giving the truths of the Bible in clear and progressive 
order. 

The Church should emulate and excel the State 
not only in the method and thoroughness of the instruc- 



186 MODEEN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

tion given, but especially in striving to reach and ed- 
ucate all tlie children of each community. Parents, 
though not even attendants upon the church services, 
will generally be pleased by the attention paid to 
their children in the Sunday-school; and if the in- 
struction given is thorough and from the heart, the 
children will become converted and thus carry the spirit 
of Christ into the home. The Sunday-school, in seeking 
all the children of a community, is entering upon a mis- 
sion field in each community of great need and utmost 
hopefulness. The Sunday-school is not designed to take 
the religious training out of the hand of Christian par- 
ents; it is a human institution, and Christian parents are 
the God-appointed teachers of their children — the human 
institution can not supersede the divinely appointed one, 
but the school should aim to be the parent's efficient 
helper. But there are many children in every com- 
munity who have no religious instruction at home. The 
State schools can give but little instruction of this 
kind, tho the schools of a Christian community are dis- 
tinctly Christian. But if these children are to receive 
any thorough instruction in religious subjects it must 
come through the Sunday-school. Each Sunday-school 
should therefore aim to bring in its ranks all the chil- 
dren within its reach, and to give the most thorough in- 
struction possible. 

The general principles concerning the nature and 
management of a Sunday-school include these: 

1. It is a church institution. The church should have 
the deepest interest in it and a loving direction of it. 
The officers of the church should have the oversight of 
it, but should exercise their care in a way to develop the 



PEDAGOGY 187 

interest and responsibility of self-government, and they 
should be, where possible, members of it. The pastor 
should frequently lead the prayers of the church for it, 
and should advocate it from the pulpit. It is an im- 
portant field of his work. He should always attend its 
sessions, and should honor the superintendent and help 
him efficiently, but should rarely fill that office. A 
good plan is for him to be a substitute teacher, and by 
an arrangement with teachers and the superintendent 
seek to become, in course of a year or more, a teacher of 
each class and of each child. The expense of the school 
should be paid by the church as a rule. 

2. It is a religious school. The officers and teachers 
should know by experience the religious truths they 
teach, should be prompted by religious motives, and 
should put forth a religious influence. 

3. It is a school, not a church. It is not even the chil- 
dren' s church. The church service is the place for wor- 
ship. The children should be present there; the family 
should worship as a family. Nothing can take the place 
of this in the religious training of the children of Chris- 
tian parents. But the Sunday-school is primarily for in- 
struction, not for worship. The worship spirit should 
pervade all its exercises, but the main exercise should 
be teaching. The introductory exercises should be 
short; the closing exercises short also, and by far the 
larger part of the hour should be given to teaching; and 
this is all too short — a part of an hour once a week for 
all the religions instruction many children receive. The 
aim of the instruction should always be kept in mind 
— to convince the mind, and bring the heart into loving 
allegiance to the Savior. 



188 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

If. The school should be graded. Due account should 
be taken of the advancing ages of the scholars accord- 
ing to the principles of pedagogy. Teachers also 
thus become proficient in their grades. The scholar 
conies under new methods and influences and progressive 
truths. 

5. The Bible should be the familiar book from the first 
throughout. Picture, story, song are the three ele- 
ments the infant- class teacher relies upon, but they should 
all be Biblical. Much attention should be paid to the 
kind of song used. In the intermediate and advanced 
schools these also have their important place, but must 
be Biblical. So throughout the whole school the choice 
passages of the Bible, "the gold, silver, and precious 
stones " of the Scriptures, should be selected and stored 
in the memory. And the scholars should become famil- 
iar with the Bible as a whole. Lesson papers, when 
used, should be used not to the exclusion of the Bible, but 
as a help to it. 

The catechisms should be used in the intermediate and 
advanced grades as guides to Bible study. They give 
the progressive system of truths in such grades, they 
meet the demands of true pedagogy, and may be of great 
interest to the scholars. 

The catechisms of our own Church are Scriptural, 
simple, progressive, comprehensive, and concise. They 
are excellent text-books to guide in the study of the 
Bible. " The First Lessons in Christian Truth ?? should 
be introduced when the period of childhood gives place 
to that of youth; this should be followed by the Com- 
pendium in later youth, with the design of leading the 
scholars to a confession of faith in Christ ; and this 






PEDAGOGY 189 

should be followed by the Heidelberg Catechism, which 
treats of truth as it is experienced by the believer. 

6. The aim of the school should be conversion of the 
scholars to Christ. To this end the truth is to be pre- 
sented with progressive and cumulative force, the re- 
ligious personality of the teacher is to be fully engaged, 
and the whole conduct and atmosphere of the school is 
to be constantly directed. 

Often it is wise for the pastor to have a class in the 
Compendium, which prepares for church membership, 
either in the school or supplemental to it ; but it is bet- 
ter still to have the teachers of that grade use this Com- 
pendium for that purpose. There are many scholars in 
each school between twelve and seventeen years of age. 
Two-thirds of Christians take the decisive step between 
these ages. Teachers should have a private talk with 
each scholar on the subject. They may set a date before 
which they will do this, that it may not be neglected, 
but it is better to seize the appropriate time. 

A Decision Day in school has some advantage, but 
is apt to make formal that which should be spontaneous 
and hearty. The design is not to make mere church 
members, but intelligent, well-instructed, thoroughly 
convinced and whole-hearted, enthusiastic Christians. 

7. The time of the Sunday-school should be so arranged 
with the time of the church services that both teachers 
and scholars should be encouraged to attend the church. 
The habits of church-going should be early formed. 
Where scholars graduate from the school without having 
been converted, and without having formed church- 
going habits, they frequently remain indifferent to the 
church through life. 



190 MODERN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

8. Sunday -school calisthenics — that is, exercises to de- 
velop the strength and beauty of the school — are not to be 
neglected. We have to deal with children, and appeals to 
the child nature are to be cultivated. Regular and 
prompt attendance and good order are essentials. The 
scholars themselves should be the recruiting agents of 
the school. Responsive reading and responsive or anti- 
phonal singing ; the presentation of banners for attend- 
ance at Sunday-school and at church; reports on the 
blackboard of attendance and benevolence; these and 
many other exercises that may be devised if they do not 
absorb time or detract from the main feature of the 
school, thorough instruction, are to be adopted. 

The pastor should not only be a member of the school 
and a substitute teacher when possible, but each week 
should train a class in which teachers and those prepar- 
ing to become teachers take up the general subject of 
teaching. The principles and practises of pedagogy 
should be the main subject, tho the general knowl- 
edge of the Bible and the preparation of the next Sun- 
day-school lesson should have a due place. The pastor 
should not throw the responsibility of such a class upon 
the superintendent or any one else ; it belongs properly 
to him. 

The church should strive to attain some adequate esti- 
mate of the value of the children, and should pay them 
something of the careful attention her Lord directs, and 
the pastor here, as elsewhere, is the leader of the church. 

The value of a child may be looked at from three 
standpoints : 

1. From that of the Scripture. The value God places 
upon the child is seen in that the covenant includes 



PEDAGOGY 191 

children ; in that the moral law given the race makes 
mention of children ; in that provision was made in the 
Old Testament for theii instruction in the family and the 
nation ; and especially in the attitude and teaching of 
the Lord Jesus Christ to and about children, and the 
teaching by the Apostles, which is based on Christ's. 

2. From the standpoint of humanity. The young child 
is at once most like and most unlike God ; it has many 
of the attributes of God in kind, but in the lowest pos- 
sible degree. These attributes may be left untrained and 
become perverted, or they may be developed by Chris- 
tian training until they rule the whole man, and he feels 
the feelings, thinks the thoughts, and chooses the choices 
of God, so that at last he attains likeness and fellowship 
with God. 

3. From the standpoint of the parents. Each child, how- 
ever peculiar, is estimated by the love of father and 
mother as more valuable than can be calculated in the 
money or gems of the world. The pastor and the church 
that slight the children slight the parents beyond ex- 
cuse, as well as slight God and humanity. 



CHAPTER VI 
SOCIOLOGY 

Sociology is the science that treats of the origin, 
nature, history, laws, forces, and institutions of society. 
It asks: (1) What is the fact, what has occurred ? (2) 
In the particular facts, are there any things general — 
i.e., regularly repeated? (3) What are the causes of 
these general elements in the various facts ? 

Like all science, sociology investigates, compares, 
classifies, and reasons. It is thus distinguished from 
socialism, with which it is sometimes popularly con- 
fused. Socialism is one of the many possible theories of 
how society ought to be arranged, while sociology is the 
science of society as it is and as it probably will develop. 

Sociology is regarded by some as the culminating and 
combining science, the practical outcome of all the 
sciences. Astronomy sees the earth as a relatively 
small ball, related to other balls, swiftly passing through 
infinite space ; society is a company of passengers voy- 
aging on it. Geology, biology, and kindred natural 
sciences see force streaming up from the earth in various 
forms, chemical, vital, etc.; these culminate in social 
force. The physicists can not explain the passage from 
non-living to living matter — even evolution does not ex- 
plain origins — but they acknowledge the culmination of 
development to be in man, the social being. Man, en- 
dowed with reason and a social nature, becomes by 
united effort master of life in all forms and master of the 
earth itself. Physiology sees man as an animal. Psy- 

192 



SOCIOLOGY 193 

chology sees in him a conscious mind, a living soul. 
These sciences all culminate in the combining science of 
sociology, which sees this living soul in relation with 
kindred souls. 

The principle of evolution, so far as it is seen in 
other sciences, is seen in sociology — the orderly unfolding 
of the great plan of the wise Creator. Three elements of 
this principle of evolution are seen: 

1. Man, like other creatures, produces his kind from 
generation to generation, and the law of inheritance of 
likeness is crossed by the law of variation within the 
limits of his kind. 

2. Progress comes from selection, which involves com- 
petition, "the law of conflict and the survival of the 
fittest ?? — i.e., of those best adapted to the condition of 
life in any land or age. In all kinds of life some organ- 
isms are slightly above the average, some are below it ; 
in the competition between these there is ceaseless and 
inevitable selection and rejection, with the result of 
ceaseless and inevitable progress. When we reach man, 
two new forces appear: reason and capacity to act in 
concert with his fellows in organized society. In the 
great drama slowly unfolding in new and complex con- 
ditions the selection and rejection go on until the twen- 
tieth century man is reached; and the end is not yet. 

3. The law of affection. Birds and even tigers risk 
life to defend their young, or the species would die out. 
Nature, in the struggle for existence, develops love; she 
offers the premium of continued existence to sympathy 
and helpfulness. Man, with the two forces, reason and 
companionship with his fellows, may consciously prefer 
and foster this last law. The constant accompaniment 



194 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

of evolution is the presiding Creator, and at times the 
introduction of a new force. Christianity, the superna- 
tural revelation of the Divine nature in human nature, 
supplements this law of affection, and is preeminently 
the new force introduced in the fulness of time. Science 
in any field simply studies how God works in that field. 
So the science of sociology studies how God works, what 
are His methods of developing and molding human 
nature in society. 
Sociology has three great departments : 

1. Descriptive. The essence and structure of society 
existing now as the outcome of the past. It is the syn- 
thesis of all that has been learned about society. 

2. Statical. The powers and ideals existing in society. 
It takes the facts and forces of descriptive sociology, and 
regards them as containing social potencies determining 
social possibilities. It wastes no time in fancying what 
society might be if laziness was an element of progress, 
it bases its ideals on the experience of mankind. 

8. Dynamic. The possibility of intelligently directing 
the action of the inherent powers of society to the at- 
tainment of its ideals. It is the culmination of sociology, 
and considers the available force for changing a latent 
idea into a living reality. 

Bible sociology is the sum of our knowledge of the 
particular society described in the Bible. The Bible 
gives the account of the origin and growth of a society 
whose distinctive feature is that it has a special pro- 
gressive revelation of the being, character, and will of the 
true God, and the Bible shows how this society has been 
bound together and molded by such revelation. It 
begins with a family, which grows into a nation, spreads 



SOCIOLOGY 195 

into a society unlimited by race or national bounds, and 
promises to embrace the whole society of the human 
race. The growing revelation of God shows Him worthy 
of the supreme love of mankind. Man is cultured in 
this society until each one recognizes every other mem- 
ber of the whole race as worthy of the love he bears 
himself. The religion of the Bible is theological, based 
upon the knowledge of God as worthy of supreme love, 
and sociological, based upon the knowledge of man as 
worthy of the love each one gives himself, and it enters 
with controlling power into all the relations of this 
earthly life, and anticipates a social life in the eternal 
future. The Bible clearly presents, as the fundamental 
truth of all sociology, that man's like-mindedness with 
his brother man arises from his like-mindedness with his 
Father, God. The basis of the solidarity of the race is 
the Fatherhood of God. Bible sociology is the sociology 
of the Kingdom of God, an ideal society of the whole 
race of man on the earth. It is historical and descriptive 
from Genesis to Bevelation; it is statical, as it contains 
this reasonable ideal; and it is dynamic, as it provides the 
power to realize this ideal, the Divine Father indwelling 
in His children. 

Since sociology is not studied in colleges generally, 
and when it is studied it is apt to be an elective, fre- 
quently the only place to begin the study before entering 
upon the life-work is the theological seminary. It 
should be studied by the theological student for at least 
five reasons : 

1. To give him a general knowledge of the elements 
of sociology and a special knowledge of the sociology of 
the Bible, since a large part of his life-work is to apply 



196 MODEEN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

the latter to the former. Christ's interest is not alone in 
theological truths; it is also deeply in sociological prob- 
lems. Some one says, " Where the Bible has one page 
of theology it has ten pages of sociology." Such rad- 
ical statements should make us none the less theologians, 
but only the more sociologists. As we are to study indi- 
viduals in order to reach them, so we are to study society 
in order to reach it; but in both cases the Gospel must 
be magnified as our distinctive message. We are not to 
abandon theology; rather we are to bring the truths 
and powers of the spiritual world to bear upon the world 
of to-day, and are to teach the religion of the sociology 
of the Kingdom of God. 

2. To quicken the minister's sympathy for humanity. 
The love of souls is apt to be somewhat vague unless we 
consider the social relations and varied conditions of life, 
the influence of the past and of the present upon the 
prospects of the future. 

3. To give him clear views of the progress Christianity 
has made in changing society, lifting woman, caring for 
childhood, purifying the home, and ennobling life. It 
illumines Church history, which is not a record merely 
of Church growth and development of government, 
worship, and morals, but of the influence of Christianity 
spreading from the Church life and changing the man- 
ners, customs, and spirit of the surrounding society, the 
spreading power of the Kingdom of God through the 
centuries. 

4. To give him broad views of the missionary work of 
to-day, the achievements of Christianity in changing the 
social conditions prevailing in heathen lands. 

5. To qualify him as a leader to make the church work 



SOCIOLOGY 197 

upon each community an intelligent and conscious effort 
to better society, instead of an unintended and uncon- 
scious influence. Piety is good in itself, and its influ- 
ence is generally sweet and wholesome; but it has made 
some blunders in administering charity, in caring for 
prisoners, etc. In many directions an intelligent piety 
is needed to meet the complex needs of society. 

Society in the largest sense is the race of men 
in their consciousness of kind and the relations that 
arise therefrom; in a smaller sense, it is any group of 
like-minded individuals who know their like-mindedness 
and work togecher for common ends. Here, as else- 
where in nature, there is u unity in diversity and diver- 
sity in unity. " The like-minded persons have many 
differences, and so are capable and desirous of communi- 
cation, and of sharing the same thoughts, desires, and 
purposes. They are alike and still differ in many things, 
and so can be classified; they know this, and so classify 
themselves. 

Society is not an organism, but is wonderfully like 
one in at least five striking particulars. An organism 
in biology refers to a living body, either vegetable or 
animal, composed of different organs or parts, with 
functions which are separate but mutually dependent, 
and essential to the life of the organism. 

1. Society is like an organism, in that it is not dead 
but living; it grows and acts. 

2. Society, like the organism, is made up of a multi- 
tude of living cells or individuals. The human body, 
for instance, has in its structure five or six billions of 
living cells; many are constantly dying and being carried 
away, and their places are filled with new living cells; 



198 MODEBN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

thus the body lives. So society, each smaller group, or 
the whole race, is composed of individuals, the race of a 
billion and a half of living cells; many of these are con- 
stantly dying, but their places are filled with new indi- 
viduals — thus the society lives on through the ages. 

3. In society, as in an organism, these living cells or 
individuals are arranged in distinguishable parts or 
organs. The cells, or individuals, in both cases, are the 
same in kind, but differ in relations; in the body some 
are arranged in the brain, some in the heart; in society 
some are farmers, some are traders. 

4. In society, as in an organism, thc:e parts or organs 
cooperate with each other. Cooperation is the law of 
the body and of society. The apostle Paul says of the 
Church: " The head can not say to the foot I have no 
need of thee. ?? 

5. The complete life is only realized by complete co- 
operation. Life is low in the whole body if any impor- 
tant organ fails to cooperate. If a man has a paralyzed 
arm he is so much less a full man. So in society a 
labor strike or a capitalistic lockout is a paralysis of an 
organ, and its lack of cooperation brings the whole 
society into a low condition of life. The intelligent per- 
son or organism has the power of seeing its defects and 
correcting them; he may foster brain development or 
muscular development, he may secure a large growth in 
a desired direction, but if he is wise he will cultivate 
the harmonious development of all his parts. So the 
ideal society can only be reached by the fall develop- 
ment and complete cooperation of all its parts. 

While society is not an organism, its likeness to one is 
the basis of the organic conception of society. 



SOCIOLOGY 199 

There are three essentials in the process of the 
organization of a particular group into a society: 

1. Coexistence in the same territory. Extended means 
of communication widen the possible territory. 

2. Means of communication. Language is needed, or 
exchange of ideas by symbols, some means of discover- 
ing similarities and differences, and of coming to agree- 
ments. 

3. Resemblances or like-mindedness arising from kin- 
ship, mental and moral qualities, and potential social 
qualities to be drawn out with the advancing organiza- 
tion, as assimilation of different families, races, and 
beliefs. The relations to each other and various forms 
of cooperative activity spring up as results of individual 
suggestion and practical convenience. When these 
become so conspicuous as to challenge general attention, 
they are pronounced by the general consciousness, or 
social mind, as good, doubtful, or evil, and farther 
development is encouraged or checked. 

Sympathy arising from resemblances and differences 
is the main force in society. Drive a hundred discord- 
ant men of different races, languages, and religions into 
a small territory, and at first there would be no society. 
But soon sympathy arises, companionship is pleasurable 
in itself — besides it secures safety, increase of comfort, by 
exchanging helpfulness and cooperation — and society 
emerges. Towns, cities, nations, schools, laws, churches 
result from sympathy. The community of ideas and 
choices has many degrees. Some races and peoples are 
more closely bound than others. In the closest unions 
conflicting factors may exist and are so far an element of 
weakness. 



200 MODEBN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

Individuals are grouped in society by spontaneous 
or voluntary action into aggregates and organs. An ex- 
ample of spontaneous aggregates is blood-relationship. 
An example of voluntary aggregates is friendship. Or- 
gans differ from aggregates in that they are the grouping 
of individuals for the performance of social tasks — into 
farmers, storekeepers, and the like. A man earns his 
living by doing something for society. His occupation 
groups him in an organ. These organs are often some- 
what spontaneous — a man may be born into his trade or 
occupation, but generally this association is voluntary. 
The individual in society is not confined to one relation. 
Aggregates cross and overlap each other. In proportion 
to the many-sidedness of individuals and the interlacing 
of aggregates is the firmness of society against outward 
shock or inward disruption. If, for example, the wealthy 
aggregate is bound together with the poor by ancestry, 
friendship, political parties, and church relations, the 
whole society is much stronger than if each aggregate 
were a class by itself. So a church, including all classes 
in its membership, the rich and the poor, the capitalist 
and the working-man, is a strong bond of society, while 
one having a membership of only the rich, or only the 
poor, is a weak bond. 

These aggregates and organs are arranged in organized 
society into four great systems: 

1. The sustaining system, including farms, fisheries, 
mines, and the like. 

2. The transporting and distributing system, including 
roads, waterways, stores, factories, and the like. 

S. The communicating system, including the mails, tele- 
graph, the press, and the like. 



SOCIOLOGY 201 

4. The regulating system, including government of par- 
ents, of the State, the control by public opinion, the 
school, the Church, and the like. It is quite evident 
the welfare of society depends upon the complete co- 
operation of these great systems. 

In the progressive organization of society there are 
(1) primary classes, which are fundamental in its growth, 
and (2) secondary classes, which are the results of its 
growth. 

The primary classes are three: 

1. The Vitality Class. Of this there are three grades: 
(a) The High Vitality, where the birth-rate is high and 
the death-rate is low, and where there is much bodily 
vigor and mental power — e.g., the highest class of farmers 
and business men; (6) the Medium Vitality, where the 
birth-rate is low and a low death-rate also, where there 
is fair bodily vigor but high mental power — e.g., the ner- 
vous people of city life, swept along in the rush of busi- 
ness or pleasure; (c) the Low Vitality, with high birth- 
rate but also high death-rate, where there is low bodily 
and mental power — e.g., the ignorant and unclean people 
of both country and city. 

2. The Ability Class. Of this also there are three 
grades: (a) The Inventive, men and women of genius 
and high talent, the creators of the beautiful and the 
useful; (6) the Imitative, people of mental and moral 
soundness — the mass of ordinary people; (<?) the Defect- 
ive, either in body or mind. 

3. The Social Class. Of this there are four grades: (a) 
The High Social, those [of sympathy and public spirit; 
(6) the Eon-Social, those of narrow individualism, 
preferring to be alone and to be let alone; (c) the 



202 MODEEN PBACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Pseudo-Social, those who live as parasites, paupers in 
spirit; (d) the Anti-Social, those who live by aggression 
on society — the vicious and the criminal. 

Natural inequality is not overcome by association, 
tho it may be modified. Distribute all wealth equally, 
and still the difference in constitutions and nourish- 
ment, sanitary conditions, and the like, would make 
inequality in vitality, ability, and sociality. These pri- 
mary classes overlap each other, and wherever the high- 
est grades of each class overlap we have the natural 
social leaders, the real aristocracy of society. 

The distinguished are rare. They are men and 
women of vitality, ability, and sociality; but the service 
of this preeminent social class is great. It sets the ex- 
amples and standards of society, the unwritten rules of 
conduct; it does most of the thinking for society, dis- 
covers the truths of science, philosophy, and religion, 
and leads in organizing and directing society; it con- 
tributes most of the higher forms of beauty and happi- 
ness, poetry, art, music, and the refinements of courtesy, 
giving grace and beauty and happiness to social life. 

The secondary classes are many. The main ones 
are: (1) The Political Classes, the rulers and the ruled; 
(2) the Industrial Classes, the employers and the em- 
ployees; (3) the Economic Classes, the rich and the 
poor. These are products of social organization. There 
are lower groups of society in which even these differ- 
ences hardly exist. 

The steps in the organization of society are: 

1. The Family. All human beings live in family 
groups, even the lowest savages, tho the kinds of family 
are many. 



SOCIOLOGY 203 

2. Hordes. A group of several families without further 
organization. 

3. Tribes. Several hordes combining in an organization 
having a leader or chief. 

If. Confederations. Tribes pressed together for defense 
or aggression, or drawn together by the consciousness of 
kind, form a people or nation. An ethnic nation is where 
the social bond is a real or fictitious blood-kinship, and 
it grows by the increase of births over deaths. A 
demotic nation is largely made up with little blood-rela- 
tionship, and grows by drawing to itself from outside 
sources — e.g., the United States to-day. Our growth is 
not purely ethnic, except in a few localities, but is the 
result of immigration mingled with the native, or of pure 
immigration. 

The results of progressive organization of society 
are material wealth, resulting from security and coopera- 
tion, and psychical wealth, which is (1) emancipation from 
fear and superstition, from impulse, as men combine in 
acting and thinking and controlling themselves; and (2) 
the attainment of the arts and sciences; and (3) the 
growth of the individual in intelligence and morality. 
Organization promotes the good of the organized, both 
in possessions and self- development. 

The life of society seems to reside in the social struc- 
ture rather than in the individual members, as it does in 
an organism. The individual members of the city or 
nation perish, the structure of the city or nation per- 
sists, tho often modified. The persistent structure is 
maintained rather by psychical than by physical forces. 
The common stock of ideas, the accumulated experi- 
ence of generations, the business and governmental rela- 



204 MODEEN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

tions, the manners, customs, and habits constitute social 
vitality. 

The progress of society is in the nature of growth 
or development of the social structure. The physical 
forces of aggregates and organs are stimulated, directed, 
and restrained by the psychical forces into the four 
great systems of society, thus leading to the progress 
under complex conditions from savagery to civilization. 
Individual desires constantly regulated by common psy- 
chical forces gradually produce the general activities in 
a multitude of forms necessary to the preservation and 
progress of social life. The provisioning of a great city, 
to take a single instance, is not intelligently directed by 
any man or body of men, nor has it been planned by 
society itself; it is a growth, but it is fully as well done 
as the supply of an army by the commissary general. 

Future improvement or progress of society in any 
particular direction or in general must be in the nature 
of growth. Whatever seems like revolution is only a 
convulsion of evolution — if there are any good results — 
like the bursting of buds into leafage. There is no place 
for destructive revolution in a living thing. We may 
pull down a wall and build another, but we can not cut 
down a tree and set it up again. All we can do with a 
tree is to trim it and cultivate it. The task of the prac- 
tical sociologist can only be intentionally and intelli- 
gently to direct and hasten growth to a higher social 
ideal, and this can only be done by the cultivation of the 
common psychical forces. The present order of society 
is all we have; we must work with it or nothing. The 
ideal nation or city can only come about by the present 
nation or city growing better; and it is so with each 



SOCIOLOGY 205 

community. The churches led by their pastors should 
be practical sociologists. 

The three main elements of sociology are: 

1. The Physical Basis of Society. This is the earth it- 
self, the home of the race; the land or country in which 
a particular social organization resides. 

2. The Social Person — the individual man. 

3. The Institutions founded in the nature of the social 
person. 

The land or country in which a particular people or 
nation live directs and limits their social action to a 
large extent, and molds the general character of the 
people. The fertility of the land, together with rivers, 
coasts, and means of communication, limits the extent of 
the population, determines largely their employments, 
and greatly influences their character. The climate, the 
formation of the land (whether mountains or plains, etc. ), 
and its situation with regard to other countries, affect 
race characteristics, determine the kind of patriotism, 
and even mold the form of government. Northern 
races are hardy; where the snow flies, liberty may 
flourish; broad plains and wide seas make broad-minded 
men; mountains make grand and strong men. The land 
is not only a stony field or a rich garden; it is a gallery 
of pictures; it feeds not only stomachs but brains; there 
are as many landscapes as pairs of eyes to see them, and 
their constant presence has great influence on the eyes. 
The far-seers were not only inspired of God, they dwelt 
upon the mountains of Judah. So God cultures people. 
Our own nation, living on the broad bosom of a con- 
tinent, has a wide outlook on the whole earth; self- am- 
bition would lead her to seek to rule the earth; but she 



206 MODEKN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

is a Christian nation, and with the growing spirit of 
Christ in her character she will minister to the good of 
the earth; but, whether selfish or Christian, her position 
makes her a world power. 

The social person has two leading elements: 
(1) the bodily appetites and (2) the mental character- 
istics. Both have large influence in forming and mold- 
ing society. 

1. The bodily appetites of hunger and love are the strong 
forces in all history, in the maintenance and distribution 
of the race, in securing sustenance through industry, 
enterprise, or migration, in seeking the best health con- 
ditions, and in continuing the existence of the race 
through the difference of sexes. Whatever social the- 
ories are being considered, hunger and love are steadily 
at work molding social conditions. 

2. The mind is the basis of personality. The differ- 
ences of mental characteristics in the social person are 
the ground and cause of unity in society; there is a 
comity of interest in their free exercise and develop- 
ment. Special individual tastes and aptitudes cultivate 
themselves by pleasure in exercise, find the rewards of 
success, and so combine in social values. The regula- 
tion of the bodily appetites and the combination of indi- 
vidual gifts largely mould and modify society. 

In the make-up of the social person two great 
forces are constantly at work : (1) heredity and (2) 
environment. These are so interwoven that it is diffi- 
cult to consider either separately. 

I. Heredity, (a) This has a large general influence. 
The marked race distinctions, tho there are many other 
active forces, such as the inheritance of country, Ian- 



SOCIOLOGY 207 

guage, government, and the like, are largely due to hered- 
ity; e.g. j the Arab, the Anglo-Saxon. (6) Heredity has 
also a large particular influence. Physical form, mental 
habits, many moral tendencies and dispositions, come 
from ancestry. There is of necessity a large amount of 
variation as well as persistence of traits in particular 
heredity, since each individual comes from two parents. 
Here also heredity can not be considered alone. It is in- 
separably connected with the inheritance of physical 
conditions, with parental influence in the most suscepti- 
ble period of life, and with general social environment. 

In Bible sociology heredity has a prominent place. 
A family is selected and guarded against contaminating 
influences, and the hereditary traits in the Jewish race 
remain strong until this day — the faith in the one God 
of Abraham, the pure wedded love of Isaac, the busi- 
ness shrewdness of Jacob. Not only in a particular 
family, but in the general law of humanity given in the 
Bible, heredity has a prominent place. The second 
commandment visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children to the third and fourth generation, and shows 
mercy to the thousandth generation of those that love 
God and keep His commandments. 

Under the government of God the race exists in suc- 
cessive generations, and each generation receives from 
those that have passed not only its being, but largely its 
character and conditions — not, however, to the extent of 
interfering with responsibility, nor of precluding changes. 
So the Bible appeals to the will to arise out of a bad 
heredity, and to choose the good firmly, not only for 
one's self, but for his children. 

A man chooses a vicious course; he impairs his consti- 



208 MODEEN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

tution, ruins his reputation, and squanders his property. 
The strong tendency will be for his children to have his 
impaired constitution and vicious character, his ruined 
reputation, and his poverty. His wife may have the 
reverse character, and if she is strong as well there will 
be a reverse heredity and influence; but if she is like 
him the heredity will be confirmed. 

But the case is not hopeless; bad heredity is to the 
third or fourth generation, good is to the thousandth. 
The law works with absolute and impartial justice, but 
it leans to the side of blessing, and so makes a strong 
appeal to the most enfeebled will. A child inherits an 
impaired constitution; but there are restorative forces 
within the child and a world of remedies without. A 
child inherits a dull mind; but there is still in the dullest 
a thirst for knowledge, and it is surrounded by the intel- 
ligence of others. A child inherits an irreligious char- 
acter; but there is still in the soul an unrest for God, and 
there is Christianity in the community. 

So with the race. The limit of degradation seems 
fixed. The limit of progress can not be imagined. How- 
ever degraded a portion of the race may be, still the soul 
is capable of knowing God and of being renewed in His 
likeness; and Christ, through Christianity, is still seek- 
ing to save; and what a saved soul or a saved race may 
become no one but God knows. 

2. Environment. This force has large but not con- 
trolling influence in molding both the individual and 
society. The influence of land and climate has been 
considered. The social conditions tend to perpetuate 
themselves by molding the individual to be content with 
them or to despair under them. Two things modify 



SOCIOLOGY 209 

this influence: first, the power of the human will, and, 
second, the power of the Divine influence on the soul 
and on general society directly, and then through the 
forces of a changing environment. 

In Bible sociology, environment has a prominent place 
in four particulars : 

1. In showing the strength of the individual will, en- 
dowed with Divine power to resist the worst environ- 
ment; e.g., Joseph, Moses, Daniel, Stephen, and the 
Church in a heathen city. 

2. In calling out of a bad environment; e.g., Abraham, 
Moses, Matthew, Paul, the children of Israel from 
Egypt, from Babylon. 

3. The providing of good environment; e.g., the grant 
to Israel of the land of Judea generally, and in particular, 
the giving each family a possession in it, thus fostering 
separate homes and, in the process of time, the Christian 
home. 

4. In changing a bad into a good environment; e.g., the 
establishment of a church in a heathen community, mak- 
ing the church itself a brotherhood of love taken out 
of that community in spirit, but still living in it, to 
spread its influence, thus making the city and the nation 
in after generations Christian. 

Christianity has two distinct aims with reference 
to heredity and environment: 

1. To rescue from an evil heredity and environment 
by changing the will and renewing the soul. 

2. To improve heredity and environment by changing 
society, bringing in the Kingdom of God for the present 
and future generations. Heredity and environment fur- 
nish a tendency toward vice or virtue, but not a necessity 



210 MODEEN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

for either. The supremacy of the will over both is ac- 
knowledged. Each man is responsible for not resisting 
bad heredity and environment, or for not using good 
heredity and environment; in either case there is grave 
responsibility. No man need be a slave to his dead 
grandfather, nor a prisoner of circumstances, while 
Christ gives the power to become a son of God. Jerry 
McAuley, in the twinkling of an eye, put his foot on 
heredity and environment, and stood erect a son of God. 
None the less, but all the more, Christianity sees the 
power of both heredity and environment, and seeks to 
use them for the Kingdom of God. Good parentage and 
a good neighborhood are not the new birth, but they are 
very favorable conditions for it. In the spread of the 
Kingdom of God the covenant is with us and with our 
children to a thousand generations. 

The Institutions founded on the nature of the social 
person are those of: 

1. The Family. 

2. Industry. 

3. Culture; e.g., School, Church. 

4. Control; e.g., Town, State, Nation. 

I. The family is founded mainly upon these three ele- 
ments in the social person: 

(a) Sexual difference, and the nearly equal number of 
the sexes. 

(b) The capacity of an exclusive and lifelong passion 
between one man and one woman. 

(c) Prolonged infancy and youth of children needing 
parental care. 

The sexual passion has for its object the perpetuation 
of the race. The family is based upon the regulation of 



SOCIOLOGY 211 

the sexual passion in the production and care of chil- 
dren. The purely psychic emotions of the sexes are the 
outgrowth and flower of the sexual passion. The pro- 
longed infancy of children has had vast influence in the 
growth of civilization. This, together with the capacity 
for lifelong and exclusive affection of the parents, make 
monogamy the basis of the permanent family. 

In the family the social elements have their finest 
culture. The capacity for parental love lies dormant 
until a child draws it out into full vigor. The pro- 
longed period of gestation and infancy cultivates father 
and mother love. The dependence of the child long 
continued cultivates the child in love and obedience. 
The capacity for brotherly and sisterly affection lies dor- 
mant until a second child draws it out in sweetness and 
power. The ideal family is where each boy has a sister 
and a brother, and each girl has a sister and a brother, 
and these are spared to each other in the same family 
circle to maturity; then the social circle is apt to be well 
rounded and complete. 

The interest society has in the family is there- 
fore very great. The family is the center of both 
heredity and environment, and radiates many social ties 
and propensities, and so forms the basis of society. It 
is the source of government and brotherhood, of obedi- 
ence to law. and of the service of mankind. The forma- 
tion, perpetuation, and soundness of the family is the 
fountain of life and power in society. It is like the 
heart in the animal organism. Weaken and corrupt the 
family, and heroes can not save the state. 

The history of the family is claimed by some to 
be an evolution until the monogamous family is reached. 



212 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

The earliest family was the horde, differing little from 
the herd among animals, and children were the common 
property and charge; then there was the simple pairing 
for a short time, until the child was weaned; then came 
the woman having several husbands, the relation of chil- 
dren being traced through the mother, while the father's 
side was ignored; then came the man having several 
wives, the relation of children being traced through 
the father, while the mother's side was ignored; at 
length monogamy evolved. While there may be slight 
evidence of this evolution among some tribes of the 
race, there is much evidence that when the first dim 
ranks of mankind emerged from the mist of the far- 
distant past the monogamous family existed. Such a 
family is not only based upon the elements and laws of 
the social being existing to-day, but the history of man- 
kind intimates that these elements existed from the first. 
Society has a vast interest in the formation of 
the marriage relation, as have the parties to it. Un- 
healthy and unhappy marriages are to be avoided, but it 
is difficult for the state or public opinion to exercise more 
than advisory power. There seem to be three elements 
that should be present in entering the married relation: 

1. The presence of exclusive love. 

2. Good quality in physical, mental, and moral re- 
spects. 

The parties should be of suitable age, of good health, 
and good character, in order to insure a healthy heredity 
for their children. 

3. Fair prospects of support, of being able to earn a 
living for themselves and their children. 

The bodily structure of the social being determines 



SOCIOLOGY 213 

the appetites which form history; hunger and love se- 
cure the maintenance and continuance of the race. The 
great words of sociology in this respect are Production 
and Eeproduction; of these the latter is the greater. 
The regulation of the powerful appetites, hunger and 
love, is the achievement of the social organism, resulting 
in civilization. 

The formation and support of families are the essen- 
tials of social progress. 

There are many foes of the family. Six may be 
rapidly considered: ■ 

1. Wrong views of entering marriage — reluctance to 
form the relation at one extreme and heedlessness in 
forming it at the other. 

2. The immoral lessening of births. There may be moral 
reasons for many small families, but for the cultured 
and rich to avoid the trouble of having and caring for 
children is false to the true interests of society. 

S. Wrong views of divorce. Divorce laws are not for 
the relief of the discontented, but for the safeguarding 
of marriage. Marriage is something more than a part- 
nership dissolvable at the will of the parties. Society 
has an interest in its permanence. It is at the founda- 
tion of the family and the state. Divorce should be a 
punishment for infidelity, not an incentive to discontent. 

If.. Licentiousness and impurity. Society is undermin- 
ing the family when it is indifferent to the social evil in 
any of its stages. 

5. Polygamy. This has been a great enemy in the 
past, and is not dead yet. 

6. Crowded and uncomfortable homes, fostering poor 
health and immorality. 



214 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Bible sociology has strong and clear teaching con- 
cerning the family: 

1. The moral law guards it in the second, fifth, 
sixth, and seventh commandments. 

2. The civil laws against impurity and sins against 
the family were very severe, equally upon the man and 
the woman; and while polygamy and divorce were per- 
mitted, they were frowned upon. 

Woman was exalted because man was considered not 
only nor even first as a citizen or a soldier, but as the 
head of a family; in the former case woman is an in- 
ferior being — a non-combatant, as in Borne; but in the 
latter case her honor is guarded as the equal of the man 
in the home. 

3. The Covenant includes successive generations. 
The First Sacrament of the Covenant with Abraham in- 
dicated purity in reproduction. 

4. Christ's teaching bases the family upon God's law 
in nature, pronounces the union as one flesh, forbids its 
dissolution, and gives divorce as a punishment for infi- 
delity. He blesses the children brought to Him. 

5. The family is throughout treated as the great insti- 
tution in which God cultivates love, the spirit which 
going out from the family tends to make the whole race 
one family. The result is seen in Bible lands. Polyg- 
amy and impurity are outlawed. Vice is driven into 
the back streets. Womanhood and childhood are hon- 
ored in the family. Life and conduct are to be viewed 
in the light of eternity, and while the Bible teaches 
there is no marriage in heaven, still the finer feelings 
arising in marriage and flourishing in the family here 
doubtlessly persist through death and flourish in the 



SOCIOLOGY 215 

life beyond. Licentiousness, jealousy, hate, make a hell 
in this life and prepare for the hell beyond, while purity, 
trust, and love make a heaven in this life and prepare 
for the heaven beyond. 

Society has great interest in the dwelling-places of 
its families. The first dwelling of men may have been 
a cave, but it did not long remain so. The constructive 
genius of man soon formed a tent or a hut. The dwell- 
ing-place has a large influence on character. The mov- 
able tent awakens and fosters a wandering disposition. 
The hut is attached to the land and awakens local at- 
tachment, and tends to stability of character; the owner 
becomes conservative and patriotic. The house becomes 
more than a shelter from the weather; it gives seclusion 
from the world, it gives privacy for the cultivation and 
refinement of the family. Extremes are not for the best 
interests of society; the tent, the one-roomed cabin, the 
crowded tenement, give little comfort and less privacy, 
while the palace fosters enervating luxury and selfish 
seclusion. 

Society is short-sighted when it thinks more of property 
than of purity. There is a minimum standard of dwell- 
ing-place for health and decency, beyond which society 
should not allow its families to descend. The home is 
the combination of the house and the family. The in- 
terest of society is to have the best possible homes in the 
largest possible numbers. More social problems find 
their essential factors running back to the home than to 
any other place — to the family not only, but to the dwell- 
ing-place of the family. The one-room cabins of the 
negroes in the South, and the crowded tenement houses 
in Northern cities are bad for the morals of their in- 



216 MODEEN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

mates, are the shame of the rich owners, and a perplex- 
ing problem of society. 

Bible sociology contemplated a separate house for 
every Hebrew family, and the ownership of sufficient 
land for support. The land belonged to God. He gave 
it to the six hundred thousand families, about twenty- 
five acres to each family, but not in absolute fee simple. 
Each head of the family had his own home; he might 
sell it, but not forever; he or the next of kin might re- 
deem it at any time, and in any event it returned to his 
family in the year of Jubilee. The only exception were 
the Levites; provision was made for their living and 
their homes, but they were not permitted to hold real 
estate. They were the learned class in the nation and 
had a position of influence, and the nation was guarded 
from their also becoming large land owners. Lycurgus, 
Solon, and Numa, with all their wisdom, never so checked 
the grasp which, learning and property combined, might 
take of political power. 

The Hebrew families lived in villages and cities, each 
in their own house, and each family had land sufficient 
for support. Large estates could not be legally acquired, 
large establishments with many slaves were not fostered. 
Slave-holding and poverty were alike discouraged by 
this ordering. 

The rules for the construction of houses and for 
sanitation were wise and strict. In the time of Christ, 
Palestine was a densely populated land ; still, each 
family, even in cities, had its own house, separate 
from all others. In the laws for his people, God did 
not overlook such an important matter as the house of a 
family. 



SOCIOLOGY 217 

2. The Institution of Industry follows that of the 
family, and is closely allied to it. 

The dawning intelligence of a child first recognizes the 
love of father and mother; then that they are workers, 
and soon the child begins to work. Housekeeping is 
the first industry, providing and then preparing food and 
clothing, then the improving and adorning the house 
itself. The husband is the houseband (head), the wife 
is the weaver. Then a particular lamily having taste 
and skill, cultivated and transmitted by heredity and 
training, prepares certain things better and faster than 
the neighboring family, whose particular taste and skill 
excel upon some other article. Accumulation and ex- 
change follows. Specialization increases, guilds of certain 
classes of manufacturers arise. Then others withdraw 
from making things and devote themselves to exchang- 
ing things, and the Industrial Institution becomes a 
vast and complicated feature of society. Man's ad- 
vance in civilization has depended largely upon his pos- 
session of three simple things, with which we are very 
familiar: language, fire, and tools. By the use of lan- 
guage he is able to keep the discoveries of his ancestry 
and to enter upon intelligent associated action, and by 
fire and tools he grasps the powers of the universe. Man 
differs from the highest animals in these three respects. 

Man is the only being who has ability to make and 
use tools. It is claimed that some animals use clubs and 
throw things, but no animal makes tools. Possibly 
man's first tool was a club for defense or attack. Pos- 
sibly he first discovered fire by throwing one stone upon 
another. But he soon left the animal stage by making 
fire and tools at will. From tools for defense and attack, 



218 MODEKN PKACTICAL THEOLOGY 

man quickly advanced to tools for construction, the club 
becoming a hammer, and then to tools for cultivating the 
soil, and for preparing food and clothing. By tools man 
works great changes upon and largely triumphs over his 
environment; from being its victim he becomes its mas- 
ter. He builds houses and cities, he tunnels mountains, 
crosses oceans, and speaks his messages through the 
skies from continent to continent. 

In modern times a great change has come about in 
the matter of tools. Up to the beginning of the last cen- 
tury tools were comparatively simple; they were mainly 
moved by man's own muscles, and they were largely 
used in his own home. Manufacturing was largely a 
home industry. The worker was generally the owner of 
his tools, and the laws of society protected him in the 
possession of his tools; they were his means of gaining 
his livelihood. But in the last century tools have been 
wonderfully developed, until now they are complex and 
expensive; they are moved mainly by steam-power, and 
they are located near the steam-power in factories. A 
railroad and a steamship are only great tools. Two re- 
sults have followed: 

1. The workman is taken from his house to reach his 
tools. There are advantages and disadvantages in this: 
the sordidness of manufacturing and trading is taken 
from the house, but on the other hand the parents are 
often taken away from the care of their children when 
most needed. 

2. The workman is no longer the owner of, nor has he 
any control over, his tools. The factory closes its doors 
at the will of its owners, and the workmen are deprived 
of their means of gaining a livelihood. i ' Labor strikes ' 



i ?? 



SOCIOLOGY 219 

and factory u shut-outs" are not merely a conflict be- 
tween labor and capital; the conflict is really between 
workers and tool owners, between workers and those 
who own the only means these workers have of securing 
their livlihood. It is said more wealth has been accumu- 
lated during the last century than during all the cen- 
turies preceding. Much of this accumulated wealth is 
in tools. A railroad, a steamship, a factory, is a growth. 
The owner of the factory has from its profits, or the 
credit secured by them, enlarged his factory and put 
in more machines, and has become rich. 

There are three elements within the development 
of a factory: (1) the capital invested in the plant, (2) 
the labor that directs the machinery, and (3) the busi- 
ness management that provides the materials, directs 
the process of changing these into articles of use, and 
secures the profitable disposal of these articles. 

There are two forces without: (1) other factories 
and (2) the consumers. 

All these elements and forces are within the sphere of 
the general society. It is evident the business manage- 
ment is the larger element of success; it must so direct 
the factory in competition with other factories that con- 
sumers have their demands supplied at a good profit. 
The business management has generally a large share in 
the ownership of the capital, and derives its rewards 
from salaries and dividends; it has in its hand the pur- 
chase of raw materials, the giving wages to labor, and 
the sale of the manufactured article. If it is governed 
entirely by egoism, it will buy labor as it buys raw 
material, in the cheapest market, and get the most 
possible out of it. In proportion as it is governed by 



220 MODEBIsr PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

altruism it will treat labor as manhood, and will seek to 
give justice in wages and hours of work. 

The accumulation of the vast fortunes of our day 
seems to indicate that the business management has 
taken to itself rather more than its just proportion of the 
profits. How the profits shall be distributed, what is 
just wages for labor, what is just interest for capital, and 
what is just reward for business management, is a diffi- 
cult problem, especially as often losses take the place of 
profits. It is obvious, however, that the price of labor 
should not be measured by the lowest cost of living of 
the laborer, but by the worth of the labor to the 
employer. The competitive principle of egoism needs 
the correction of the justice principle of altruism. 

The highest interest of society in industrial pur- 
suits is not the production of wealth, but the cultivation 
of manhood and womanhood. Wealth has great worth, 
but its principal use is a means to cultivate manhood. 
Manhood is the supreme product of our factories, mines, 
and railroads. It is the interest of society to have the 
laborer's character and condition constantly improved. 
By the census of 1900 there were more than 18,000,000 
wage-earners in the United States. As these were mostly 
adults, and the large majority men, they form a large 
proportion of our population, the total of which was, in 
1900, 76,000,000. These are not salaried men, nor pro- 
prietors, nor professional, nor business men, but those 
employed, and paid wages. 

The highest interest of capital is not the production 
of wealth, but of manhood. The wage-earner's intelli- 
gence, skill, and fidelity are the elements of success in 
working the factory, the mine, or the railroad. Bar- 



SOCIOLOGY 221 

barians, however many and strong, could not produce or 
care for our wealth. Enlightened egoism becomes just 
altruism. The Golden Eule is the way to attain and 
keep civilization. Society and capital should foster con- 
ditions improving the manhood of wage -earners. 

The great steel corporation recently offered to all its 
business managers and wage-earners a share in its capital 
stock, deeming rightly that it is good business for capital 
to cultivate the manhood of its employees by giving 
them a share in its profits. 

The development of tools, with its vast increase 
of wealth, is the basis of the great combinations of capi- 
tal and labor which are the characteristics of the indus- 
trial institution of to-day. 

1. Combination of wealth means organized system, and 
this means the greatest economy, which is the line of 
least resistance in industrial movement. Add to this 
the enormous power to crush out competition in any 
particular field of industry, and the advantage of the 
combination becomes apparent. 

Society, by its public opinion and its laws, fosters the 
growth of wealth. It creates corporations with limited 
liabilities of shareholders, frequently gives such corpo- 
rations the right of eminent domain and public fran- 
chises, and the right to acquire patent-rights and trade- 
marks, and sets little or no limit to the exercise of these 
vast powers, or to the combination of various corpora- 
tions in one large, all-embracing one. 

2. Combination of labor forms a labor union composed, 
as far as possible, of all the labor of a particular kind, 
and seeks to negotiate with the employers for the price 
to be paid for labor and for the time of labor. The 



222 MODEKN PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

unions have other features of brotherhood and helpful- 
ness, but their main object is to present for wages, not 
individuals in competition with each other, but a com- 
bination of all the labor obtainable. 

Society, by its public opinion and its laws, fosters the 
rights of labor. The greed of capital and the need of 
parents had forced children into premature labor, had 
made long days of labor for adults and children, and 
had been careless of health or life in mills or mines; 
and so laws of sanitation and safety, laws of hours 
of labor, and laws forbidding child labor have been 
enacted. 

Society is thus seen to be a party in interest in these 
great combinations both of capital and labor j both are 
within her sphere. Business can not be carried on 
simply as the owner pleases. Society has an interest in 
the matter. Labor can combine, but can not force its 
members, non-members, nor its employers; it must nego- 
tiate. Society has an interest in the matter. The limit 
of combination is also set by the interest not of the com- 
bination, but of society. There must still be room for 
healthy competition, and an incentive of reward for gifted 
individuals to take the initiative in industrial enterprise. 

Wealth is increasing rapidly. Society is interested to 
see that while its rich members are growing richer, that 
greater numbers are becoming rich, and the wage-earn- 
ers are better off than ever before and are still advanc- 
ing, and that in all homes the results of tools and the 
tools themselves bring comfort and the leisure for cul- 
ture. 

Serving is a means to success. Oftentimes the 
motive stirring enterprise is not to serve, but to gain the 



SOCIOLOGY 223 

rewards of service. This motive oftentimes conflicts 
with the service; it makes the charges for service so 
high as to check the service and defeat itself. 

It is evident that a successful factory or railroad gains 
its wealth by serving society. The central part of our 
country has become wealthy because of the fertility of 
the soil, the industry of the settlers, and the enterprise 
of the great railroads; these latter serve not only that 
part, but our whole country and the world. A store- 
keeper serves a community by bringing the products of 
all climes to its doors. 

It is possible, and it is a part of Dynamic Sociology, for 
the Industrial Institution to become so intelligent and 
enterprising that its motive shall be to serve; then mo- 
tive and action agreeing, the service will be more com- 
plete and the success even greater. The selfish motive 
makes competition cruel, the serving motive would 
make competition beneficient. The tendency in our 
time is for vast wealth to bestow large gifts upon 
society; this is commendable public spirit, the spirit 
of service. A still better spirit is to gain wealth and 
use it in the spirit of service, and that seems a growing 
spirit. 

Wealth made by crushing competition, and by extor- 
tion from the needy, and by depriving labor of just dues, 
can not compensate society for the injury done in its 
accumulation by any gift, however large. An aristoc- 
racy of wealth, or of anything else based upon only two of 
the primary classes, is a social enormity; to be whole- 
some and beautiful it must combine the three: the high 
vitality, high ability, and especially the high social 
class — the class that serves society. 



224 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Of the good citizen it has been well said: 

" Talents and wealth to him were but a trust 
To lift his hapless brother from the dust." 

An aristocracy of wealth that serves society in its get- 
ting and its using may not have so much wealth, but it will 
have much greater honor and far more beneficent power. 

Bible sociology has much to teach concerning the 
industrial institution and the production and distribu- 
tion of wealth. Industry is held in honor, enterprise is 
encouraged, and the spirit of service is to rule. It cul- 
minates in the teaching of Christ, and may be called the 
Sociology of the Kingdom of Heaven as proclaimed by 
the King Himself. His comprehensive teaching about 
wealth regards it not alone by itself, but in its relation 
to manhood. If it hinders the building of a good char- 
acter, it is condemned. 

The difficulty of rich men entering heaven was not in 
that it was wrong to be rich, but because of the absorb- 
ing love and cares of riches hindering them from choos- 
ing first the Kingdom of God. 

There are four principles running through the 
teaching of Christ about wealth: 

1. The relativity of values. There is something bet- 
ter than material values. The soul is worth more than 
wealth. 

2. Wealth is not our own ; it belongs to God. As 
between man and man there is ownership, but with re- 
gard to God we are merely stewards. He is the sole 
owner. In our gaining and using wealth we are to exer- 
cise our stewardship in a way to please the owner — we 
are acting for Him. 



SOCIOLOGY 225 

3. The principle of love was not to be shut out of 
business, but was to rule there as everywhere. This is 
not the charity that gives, but the love that is just and 
fair; that seeks the good of others as one seeks his own 
in employing labor, in all matters of trade, and generally 
in the service of mankind. This secures a mutual advan- 
tage as nearly equal as possible in every business trans- 
action. This makes business for " profit only " to be in 
the highest degree immoral. 

4. In His conduct Christ made no distinction between 
the rich and the poor — He treated all alike. He had 
relations of helpfulness and friendship with the rich; He 
chose some of His disciples from the rich, and He had 
equal consideration for the poor. He attached no moral 
quality to the condition of riches or poverty, but was 
ever attentive to the needs of manhood. 

The Church should follow Christ's example: slight 
neither the rich nor the poor. It should have sympathy 
with the laboring man, not as a partisan, but as an intelli- 
gent friend. 

3. The Institution of Culture in Society includes the 
School and the Church. The dawning intelligence of the 
child in the home recognizes not only the love of father 
and mother, and the fact that they are workers; it is 
itself developed through their teaching, and brings its 
many questions to them for their answers. While not 
conscious of it at the time, one of the great influences 
upon the child is the kind of language used in the home 
and the manners and customs prevailing there; these are 
the atmosphere of culture in which the child lives. In 
many homes, also, the child is impressed by the family 
kneeling and speaking to some One unseen, and fre- 



226 MODEEN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

quently the mother teaches her child to pray to God, the 
heavenly Father. The influence of religious observances 
in the family makes a great impression upon the forming 
character of the child. Soon this dawning culture of the 
home is enlarged as the child is taken with its parents 
to the church, and with large numbers engages in the 
public worship of God. Soon ; also, the child goes with 
other children to the neighborhood school, and the cul- 
ture of the home is enlarged by the culture of the teacher 
and of the many companion scholars. 

These two institutions of culture, the school and the 
church, have already been largely treated in former 
parts of this course. To sum up here in a few words: 
Sociology claims, in regard to the school, that each mem- 
ber of society should have that development of the 
physical, mental, moral, and spiritual powers necessary 
to the enjoyment of the privileges and to the fulfilment 
of the duties of the social organization. 

In regard to the Church, sociology claims (1) that 
religion should not fix its attention upon the future life 
so intently that it neglects the present life, but that it 
should be keenly alive to all the interests of society; (2) 
that it should not be so devoted to church observances 
that it neglects social duties; (3) that it should not 
strive so earnestly for individual salvation that it 
neglects social salvation; (4) that the principles of 
righteousness in the sight of God should be applied to 
all the relations of this life, and (5) that the service of 
God should embrace man's dealings with his fellow men. 
Bible sociology confirms these claims of sociology; it 
teaches that religious emotion and sentiments of charity, 
propriety, and self-denial can not atone for the absence 



SOCIOLOGY 227 

of justice in dealings and of high regard for the rights of 
others. 

The Institution of Control includes Town, State, 
and National Government. It includes, earlier than any 
other control, that of the Family. The dawning intel- 
ligence of the child soon recognizes that it is not alto- 
gether its own master, that there is control of parental 
authority; learning obedience to this authority, it dis- 
covers that its aim is not to injure but to benefit the 
individual child. Soon the child sees indications that 
the family itself is under some kind of control. Courts 
are spoken of at the family table, and laws, and Govern- 
ors, and Presidents, and law-makers, and elections. The 
obedience of the child to family authority is taught, as 
years go on the duty of obedience to other authority, 
and he discovers that here, too, its aim is not to injure 
but to benefit the individual family and all its individual 
members. The obedient, cultured child thus becomes 
the intelligent, loyal citizen. The ideal of the state is 
the enlarged family, an order and control having the 
welfare of its members as its aim. The first step out of 
barbarism is the establishment of some kind of govern- 
ment strong enough to preserve peace and order within, 
and to resist successfully all attack from without. This 
accomplished, there must develop a system of individual 
liberty within clearly marked limits, and the state must 
refrain from crossing these limits itself, and must pre- 
vent any of its members crossing them. 

The state is mankind politically organized for creat- 
ing and perfecting two things: government, and liberty 
within that government. Each, having its proper field 
of activity well defined and guarded, matches with the 



228 MODEEN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

other to form a well-regulated and established state. 
All subsequent history of that state or nation is the con- 
tinually changing line of demarkation between govern- 
ment and liberty, according as public opinion and 
circumstances dictate. When danger assails from with- 
out, individual liberty sacrifices itself to the government 
that the nation may still live. When peace prevails, 
the government should foster the individual initiative 
to the highest degree within the limits of public well- 
being. Hegel asserts that u Morality is the ultimate end 
for which the state exists. " The state is to foster the 
welfare of its citizens. If the government crushes liberty, 
one of three things usually happens: Either the class 
whose liberty is crushed tamely submits — then the moral 
wrong weakens and curses the state; or the class resists 
forcibly, and, if successful, it overthrows or changes the 
government; or there is an attempt to arouse the public 
opinion or social conscience to work the needed change 
and secure healthful liberty by peaceful means. The 
state, or politically organized society, develops the spirit 
of nationality existing among people knit together by 
common origin, speech, land, history, and custom. It 
is to be distinguished from the particular government 
which is its creature, and may be changed; it is success- 
ful as government and liberty flourish together. 

The ideal of sociology with reference to the state is 
that the control of government should be impartial to all 
its citizens; that there should be no privileged or fostered 
classes, but that all the citizens should be encouraged to 
their free and fullest development; and that the officers 
of the government should seek only the public good. 
When public opinion permits the private interests of any 



SOCIOLOGY 229 

class to be preferred to the collective good, it has lost 
this sociological ideal, and degeneracy of the nation 
has begun. 

The social consciousness has much influence upon 
government; it is that popular opinion, or popular con- 
science and will, which is made up of the combination 
and modification of individual ideals and feelings. The 
social consciousness is largely dormant in the function of 
Propagation, Production, and Distribution, but it should 
not be; it should have a keen and intelligent interest in 
the formation of the Family and the Industrial Institution. 
It has a tendency, however, to grow active in Education 
and 'Religion, and a still greater tendency to be active in 
the Government — its sense of evils here is more keen, and 
its ideals and aims are more clear. It has much to do 
not only with the formation of laws, but with their en- 
forcement; with the adoption of policies and the election 
of officers not only, but with the conduct of officers and 
the enforcing of policies. In arousing and directing 
social consciousness means of communication are needed 
that many individuals may be reached, and leaders of 
thought and ideals are as greatly needed to instruct and 
sway the many by speech or printed page. 

Such leaders should be specialists in knowledge, sym- 
pathetic with social conditions, public spirited in serv- 
ing the people, and men of force. The good preacher, 
while not in any sense a politician, should be a leader of 
popular opinion for the highest good of the state; in 
doing this he is following the example of the prophets 
of old. 

There are three important laws of Psychology 
which govern the social consciousness or public opinion: 



230 MODERN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

1. Social force is a fixed quantity. Much may be dor- 
mant, but still it is not unlimited. Great popular in- 
terest awakened in one direction withdraws some interest 
from other lines. A Presidential campaign withdraws 
interest from trade, and is a poor time for a revival of 
religion. 

2. Social force changes. It is difficult to concentrate 
social attention and interest in an intense degree upon 
any one subject for a great length of time. This insures 
against extravagant tendencies becoming permanent, 
and so against disproportionate development. Social 
consciousness aroused expresses itself in changing laws 
and customs, and then it is apt to relapse into uncon- 
sciousness, and the customs and laws tend to drift back 
to the former condition. Eternal vigilance is the price 
of liberty and of all advance. 

3. Social improvement in government, as elsewhere, 
is in the nature of an evolution rather than a revolu- 
tion; is rarely rapid, requiring much time, as all growth 
does, and is generally brought about by the cooperation 
of many combining forces, among which religion can not 
be overestimated. 

Bible Sociology with reference to the institution of 
control is not only prominent in the history of the Jewish 
nation, but especially in the teaching of the Prophets, in 
the proclamation of the laws of the Kingdom by the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and in the culture of the Christian 
life by the teaching of the apostles. The two principles 
—one of individual liberty and responsibility, the other 
of brotherhood or associated life under the rule of the 
Great King — together form the life of the Christian 
state. 



SOCIOLOGY 231 

The term Social Pathology expresses the truth 
that certain opposite conditions in society resemble 
health and disease in an organism. The evils resem- 
bling disease are not to be ignored, nor quarreled with, 
nor even attended to exclusively, but their causes are to 
be carefully sought out and wise efforts made to re- 
move them. Dynamic Sociology, as a wise physi- 
cian, instead of trying to cure symptoms, strives to 
remove their cause ; and it has taken a long time to 
learn the lesson. Morbid conditions arise frequently 
from hidden and complex causes, and much patient 
investigation is required; and a thorough cure is more 
important than the immediate relief of present dis- 
tress. 

The building up of the general system in strong health 
is generally the best way to throw off any particular 
disease. 

The Social Organism is constantly trying to heal 
itself, and charities, asylums, hospitals, and reforma- 
tories abound; but the real amelioration is such intelli- 
gent and brotherly care that social health abounds, and 
the need of such agencies is reduced. It is not the chief 
duty of society to care for the disease of any one class, 
but for the health of the whole. The chief social ques- 
tion is not how can the lot of any one class be improved, 
but what is the best life the human race can attain. 
This chief duty attained secures also the wisest and best 
help for the particular organ diseased. The social physi- 
cian, as well as the bodily physician, has discovered that 
preventative measures are better than curative; that 
maintenance of health is his great aim rather than curing 
disease; that removing the cause of a particular disease 



232 MODEEN PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

is not enough; that cause must not be permitted to arise 
again. 

There are two prominent difficulties in Social 
Pathology: 

1. The absence of any fixed standard of social health. 
It is difficult to say in many cases whether a condition is 
normal or abnormal. All sociologists will agree that 
wild speculation is abnormal, but will vary in their 
views as to normal speculation. So with theaters; the 
line between the good and the bad varies. But all will 
agree that police corruption and unsanitary conditions, 
wherever or in whatever degree they are found, are bad. 

2. The difficulty of striking a just balance between the 
opposite truths that abnormal individuals produce ab- 
normal social conditions, and that abnormal social con- 
ditions produce abnormal individuals. The minister 
should be a wise social physician sensitive to the needs 
of his community and sympathetic, still clear-eyed to 
look for causes, and when they are found, with cool 
nerve and brave heart to cut to the quick, kindly and 
firmly, to remove them. 

The most obvious social diseases or abnormal 
social conditions are these four: 

1. Poverty. The existence of a class without the means 
of approaching a complete life. 

2. Vice. A class injuring itself directly, and others 
indirectly, by the habitual violation of some law, phys- 
ical, mental, or moral. 

8. Crime. A class injuring society directly by the 
violation of social and state laws. 

If. Inactivity. A class withholding from society any 
service, and living upon the social body as parasites. 



SOCIOLOGY 233 

There are three obvious classes of socially diseased 
or abnormal individuals: (1) Dependents, (2) Delin- 
quents, and (3) Deficients. 

1. The great number of Dependents are in the condi- 
tion of poverty. 

2. The great number of Delinquents are in the condi- 
tion of vice and crime. 

3. The great number of Deficients are in the condition 
of social inactivity, either from physical or mental dis- 
ability, or from selfish idleness. 

Sociology regards these abnormal classes and condi- 
tions not in themselves alone, but as diseases affecting 
the whole body of society, reducing general health, pro- 
ducing general distress, and threatening general disaster. 
As these classes and conditions have a tendency to grow, 
society must be very careful not to foster that growth, 
but should treat them directly in a way to check it and 
diminish it. As these classes and conditions arise from 
causes, society must carefully strive to discover these 
causes and earnestly endeavor to remove them. To 
secure health is the aim, and bad conditions and disease 
germs are to be discovered and removed. In this effort 
society must pay all due attention both to the abnormal 
condition and to the abnormal individual. 

Poverty is the condition in which the total earnings 
of the individual or family are insufficient to obtain the 
minimum necessaries of physical health. The extent of 
poverty varies in different lands; in some cities of the 
Old World one-third of the population belong to the desti- 
tute class, while in some regions of our New World there 
is no such class. Still in our own country, as a whole, 
it is estimated the average shortening of life from poverty 



234 MODEBN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

is at least ten years, and that of those who would be re- 
jected from the army as not being u able-bodied/ J at 
least one-third are thus deficient from insufficient nour- 
ishment in childhood or in some period of their lives. 
The two main causes of poverty are: 

1. Economic conditions, resulting in low wages and 
infrequent employment, and in high rents and high cost 
of living. 

2. Defective individual character — mainly inefficiency 
and intemperance. 

The two main causes frequently combine, a& when 
employers in bad times have to reduce their force of wage- 
earners they generally drop, first, the intemperate; then 
the indifferent, neglectful, and lazy workmen; then the 
good single men; and, at last, the sober, industrious man 
of family. The first two ranks, being thrown out of 
employment, drop into poverty. 

The aim of society is, first, the removal of the causes: 
in economic conditions, in guarding against business de- 
pression, and cultivating public opinion demanding 
justice in work and wages; in individual character, stim- 
ulating sobriety and industry and skill, self-respecting 
manhood. 

The second aim of society is so to treat the condition 
of poverty that it shall not result in pauperism. Justice 
in work and wages and growing manhood will prevent 
the growth of poverty, and the new charity, "not so 
much alms as a friend, 7 ' will lift out of poverty — at any 
rate, prevent sinking down into pauperism. Some of the 
well-intentioned efforts to help the poor by Church and 
state have fostered poverty and increased a pauper class. 
Good intentions will not prevent serious results flowing 



SOCIOLOGY 235 

from injudicious action; often the wise have to counteract 
the efforts of the good. 

The most visible features of poverty prevail in the 
congested tenement districts of large cities. The under- 
paid, underfed, underclothed, and underhoused mass 
of poverty seems hopeless in its misery, and constantly 
promotes pauperism. Frequently large numbers of peo- 
ple live in single rooms where a rich man would hardly 
keep his dogs, and yet the occupants have to pay rent 
which makes slums profitable property. Many ame- 
liorating agencies are at work — churches, settlements, 
charities, and philanthropic societies — making better 
homes and stimulating manhood. Means of transit 
from crowded centers to suburbs, new business ven- 
tures, tend to relieve the congestion, tho only to a 
slight degree. New Zealand undertakes to withdraw 
people from the congested centers, and to colonize them 
in agricultural communities, lending them money to buy 
the land, build houses, and make a start toward 
productiveness, and providing each colony a competent 
leader to teach and direct in the new life. 

The Salvation Army, besides working among the poor, 
has also this among its plans. The state, responding to 
public opinion, legislates for better tenement-houses, and 
cities provide parks, recreation piers, and public baths 
near congested districts. 

Bible sociology, in the real estate laws and the civil 
laws of the Old Testament, carefully guarded the poor 
and sought to limit poverty. The dignity and worth of 
man, the poor as well as the rich, are leading principles 
of the New Testament. The Gospel strives to develop 
that manhood which, when it employs labor, sees in the 



236 MODEKN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

laborer a brother man, and seeks his welfare; and when 
it sells labor puts manhood into it, securing industry and 
efficiency. 

It is evident that Bible sociology not only ameliorates 
the condition, but aims to remove the causes of poverty. 
The minister should not only have sympathy with the 
poor and try to ameliorate their hard lot, but he should 
endeavor wisely, kindly, and faithfully to remove the 
causes of poverty. 

The principal vices are (1) Sexual Impurity, (2) 
Intemperance, (3) Gambling, and (4) Political and 
Police Corruption. 

I. Sexual Impurity, which is the vice that strikes 
at the foundations of society, is fearfully prevalent. It 
is not so prominent to the sight as Intemperance, but it 
vies with that vice in its permeating society, and it 
probably excels it in corrupting and destructive influ- 
ences. "Dead Seas" some one has called the lurking- 
places of impurity, the haunts of ill fame, and these seas 
have their bays and inlets in every town and village of 
our land. Mrs. Ballington Booth says there are 250,000 
harlots " known and marked" in the United States 
alone. Dr. De Costa says that "for every fallen woman 
there are five fallen men." It is estimated that $65,- 
000,000 is annually wasted in the New York City broth- 
els, and no one can estimate the waste of manhood and 
womanhood. Beyond all that can be seen, there is a 
fearful amount of sexual impurity that never comes to 
the light. Society should frown upon this destructive 
vice. It should not be allowed boldly to ensnare the 
young. Toronto, with a population of 250,000, does not 
tolerate a house of ill fame or a street-walker. But the 



SOCIOLOGY 237 

cause here must also not be neglected; it lies largely in 
the ignorance of the meaning of the sexual passion and 
in the resulting lack of self-control. 

Too often the pulpit is silent on this subject. It 
should, with suitable delicacy and faithfulness, instruct 
and warn the young, and should stimulate public opinion 
to war relentlessly against the vice. Bible sociology, cul- 
minating in the teaching of Christ, fosters social purity. 

2. Intemperance is closely associated with the other 
vices of impurity, gambling, and police corruption, and 
is a prolific cause both of poverty and of crime. 

There is much use of intoxicating liquors which is not 
intemperance, and it is often difficult to tell where mod- 
erate drinking passes the line and becomes intemperate 
drinking. But intemperance once reached has a terrible 
hold on its victim and becomes a widespread corruption 
in society. 

There are at least four main causes of intemperance: 

1. The appetite for stimulants. This has a tendency 
to grow with indulgence. 

2. The social appeal of the saloon. It provides phys- 
ical comfort: it is warm in winter, cool in summer, a 
place where men meet on terms of equality and have 
freedom to discuss business, politics, pleasure, where 
games and music are provided, where a lunch-counter 
provides needed food; but all the attractions are means 
to an end — one is expected to drink, to treat, and to be 
treated. 

3. The greed of liquor making and selling. There is 
great profit in the business, both wholesale and retail, 
and it is worked up diligently. The saloons are often 
simply agencies of the great breweries. 



238 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

4. The crowded, uncomfortable homes of the poor, and 
the insufficient and improperly cooked food there pro- 
vided. 

The remedies which are to meet the causes are five in 
number: 

1. Self-control. This includes Temperance Societies 
and the Total Abstinence Pledge. 

2. Eestriction or abolition of the saloon. The License 
System is a restriction, often slight, but becoming greater 
as the license fee is increased and the law enforced. 
Prohibition prohibits both the making and selling in- 
toxicating drinks as a beverage. 

3. The providing social attractions, apart from the sale 
of intoxicants, to offset those of the saloon. Sometimes 
the sale of liquor is permitted, but no profit made from 
it, while non-intoxicating drinks are sold at a profit, so 
that the salesman's interest is against intemperance. 

4. The removal by the State of all profit from the sale 
of liquor. The State provides the liquor, free from all 
attractions at the place of sale, and the liquor must not 
be used in the place when sold. 

5. The social efforts to increase the comfort of the 
dwellings of the poor and to improve the methods of 
preparing food, thus incidentally checking intemperance. 

3. Gambling is a vice containing at least three ele- 
ments: the spirit of play, the love of excitement, and the 
desire to get something for nothing. The fact that the 
one who loses agreed to take the risk and wanted to win 
does not change the fact that the winner gave no equiva- 
lent for the thing won. This last element is the cor- 
rupting one, and is present in the game of cards for 
money, at the gambling-table, and in the lottery, as also 



SOCIOLOGY 239 

in betting on horse-races, ball-games, elections, and the 
rise and fall of stocks. The remedy is to make plain to 
the conscience this vicions element, and to cultivate a 
public opinion that shall make all attempts to get some- 
thing for nothing disgraceful. 

4. In Political Corruption wealth tries to buy office 
or legislation. In Police Corruption Vice and Crime 
try to buy immunity from the penalty of violated law. 
Both kinds of corruption are deadly blows at good gov- 
ernment, and it is evident these things ought never to 
be subject to barter. The remedy is the cultivation 
of a public opinion demanding that each citizen shall 
express his free judgment on men and measures in his 
vote, and that each officer of the state shall seek the pub- 
lic good rather than private gain. 

Crime preys upon society. It is said that 750,000 
men and women pass through our prisons and jails 
yearly, and that nearly one-half of these are under 
twenty-five years of age. 

It is also estimated that the cost of crime in the United 
States is about $600,000,000 a year; about one-half of 
this is expended on the care of criminals, the other 
half is the estimated economic waste produced by crim- 
inals. 

It is obvious the interest of society is to reduce this 
criminal class both in degree of criminality and in num- 
ber; that defense of itself and punishment of the crimi- 
nal are only means to this end. It is almost impossible 
to conduct jails and prisons but that the idleness, society 
of criminals however restricted, and disgrace shall make 
them schools of crime, so confirming and fostering the 
criminal class. Still, society must have these institu- 



240 MODEEN PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

tions, and should constantly endeavor to make them 
reformatories fostering virtue. 

Laws define crimes and their penalties, but the real 
objects treated by society in its courts are criminals. It 
is best for society that each one convicted of crime 
should be so cared for by society that he does not become 
a confirmed criminal. 

There are three principles prevailing in the most 
enlightened and advanced Penology: 

1. Never confine a convicted person in prison but as a 
last resort. This results in the suspended sentence, and 
the convicted is put in charge of a probation officer, and 
is to be free while he maintains good behavior. 

2. When forced to imprison a criminal, send him to 
prison for an indefinite term, until he is fit to be freed 
— that is, until he gives fair promise of being a self- 
supporting, law-abiding citizen. This is extending the 
principle which now prevails in prisons of shortening 
the term for good conduct. The prison is to teach him 
self-support and virtue, but still is to be so much of a 
penal institution that each occupant will want to gradu- 
ate as soon as possible. 

3. A criminal who is released is released on parole. 
He is placed on his honor, and remains free during good 
behavior. The devices of probation officers in the first 
instance, and of parole in the last, are capable of indefi- 
nite development. The difficulty is for society to pro- 
vide work and opportunity for such without virtually 
rewarding the crime. It seems dangerous carelessly to 
overthrow the public opinion that "once a convict 
always a convict " as it is to overthrow the belief that 
"once a fallen woman always a fallen woman "j other- 



SOCIOLOGY 241 

wise the entrance upon the downward path may be robbed 
of some of its hideous features. But the caution should 
not in either case be of hard-hearted and selfish social 
virtue, but of social consideration and love, seeking to 
save its fallen members. 

The class of the Socially Inactive lives upon 
society without rendering any contribution to the social 
welfare, and is composed mainly of deficients. 

It is said that there are 100,000 imbeciles in the United 
States, and that 70 per cent, of these are children of 
imbecile parents. Society has not yet devised a way of 
preventing the marriage of those persons who are im- 
becile, but not to the degree of absolute helplessness. 
There is also a large class of insane people, and society 
must care for these wisely and kindly- But the two 
extremes of the Socially Inactive are much the larger in 
numbers: the paupers and the idle rich. 

The public opinion which wisely prevents poverty 
recruiting pauperism and riches leading to idleness is to 
be cultivated. 

With reference to all social diseases, the ideal of soci- 
ety should not be the toleration of disease, but the gain- 
ing of health. Society should consider the conditions 
which favor the growth of disease, and should patiently 
and firmly change them into conditions favoring health. 

Dynamic sociology directs attention to the family 
and childhood, both with regard to checking diseases and 
to promoting health. The inherent powers of parental 
affection and of the social consciousness or public opinion, 
when intelligently directed to the attainment of social 
ideals, must converge upon the child. But sociology and 
pedagogy agree that education is something more than 



242 MODEEN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

information; that it includes training, and this training 
is of all man's power, physical, intellectual, moral, and 
spiritual; both sciences protest against leaving out the 
latter. Mere intellectual training does not save from 
vice; the moral and the spiritual in the child must have 
due attention. 

Both sciences, while paying great and constant atten- 
tion to adults, recognize their most hopeful field is child 
saving, and in this they must sit at the feet of the great 
Child Savior of the world, who said: "Of such is the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 77 

Sociology has a large place in the Bible. The 
Bible is a sociological as well as a theological book. In 
the Old Testament the prophets apply the principles of 
righteousness to the family and national life. In the 
New Testament, Christ and His apostles apply the prin- 
ciples of righteousness to the Church life, and to the 
social life of the Kingdom of God on earth. 

Both the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer 
are largely sociological. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches sociology in the same 
way in which He teaches theology, not systematically, 
but by His life and precepts, by the setting forth of 
principles, the giving of impulses, and the renewing of 
the life. He is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. 
The principal themes of Christ's sociological teachings are 
the unfolding of the law of love in its application to the 
five main social relations: 

1. To the family — as the social spring. 

& To the state — as collective society. 

3. To fellowship— as the ideal brotherhood. 

4.. To wealth— as the use of this world. 



SOCIOLOGY 243 

5. To the Church — as the training-school of the King- 
dom of God. 

The ideal of the whole Bible, the Old Testament cul- 
minating in the New, is the Kingdom of God. 

The Kingship of Christ is the heart of both theology 
and sociology. Christ as the Great Prophet teaches of 
the Kingdom. Christ as the Great Priest atones for sin, 
securing the salvation of individual believers — their 
entrance into the Kingdom. He is both Prophet and 
Priest that He may be King. As King He applies the 
result of His Prophetical and Priestly work in the sal- 
vation of the individual, and He rules this individual as 
a social being for the salvation of society. His immediate 
aim is a new man. His ultimate aim is a new society. 
Christ's teaching of the worth of the individual makes 
the lowest man a brother of the King, and gives him a 
place in the establishment of the Kingdom. The King- 
dom of God is the highest and widest attainment of prac- 
tical theology, including sociology; at its establishment 
all men shall know and treat God as their Father and 
their fellow men as brothers. In this Kingdom the 
highest in rank and office shall be those who in loving 
service and sacrifice are most like their King. 

This is Christ's ideal of society, and the Church is his 
means of showing it forth to the world, and of estab- 
lishing it in the whole earth. 

In the Acts and the Epistles the apostles applied 
Christ's life and teachings to the then existing con- 
ditions, and the highest heathenism the world has 
ever known began to feel a wonderful change, as it ex- 
claimed: " How these Christians love one another ! " 

We are to apply Christ's life and teachings to the con- 



244 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

ditions existing in the world to-day in Christian lands 
and in the whole earth. 

The clear duty of the Church to-day is to give the 
Kingship of Christ the same prominence in her thought 
and life that the Bible gives it, and in His name to trans- 
form society everywhere into the Kingdom of God. 



CHAPTEE VII 
THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

In this course we are to read a book of the Bible as 
a whole, and, if possible, at a single sitting. As an 
authority in theology we are to look not at particular 
texts, but at a whole book. As a field of spiritual re- 
freshment we are to read not a few verses, but a poem, a 
story, a book. Such a general survey is an excellent aid 
to exegesis. The design is thus to read the whole Bible 
during the seminary course of three years. This will 
make the weekly assignment of such a size that it can 
be read easily not only at a single sitting, but can be 
read several times during the week. It will be well to 
read it at least once aloud and with expression, thus 
gaining the familiarity that comes through the ear as 
well as through the eye, becoming familiar with the 
sound of God's Word in the music of our own tongue. 
It will be well also to divide each book into proper sec- 
tions, according to the progression of thought; to give 
to each section an appropriate caption as terse, striking, 
and precise as possible; and to make subdivisions where 
needed in like manner — this may be done upon the 
margin of the Bible which you devote to this kind of 
reading. A minister can not become too familiar with 
his Bible; it is his source of spiritual power, the Word 
of God to his own soul, and it is his means of reaching 
the souls of others, the sword of the Spirit. 

However good scholars we may become in the original 

245 



246 MODEKN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

languages of the Scriptures (and our ambition to become 
the best possible scholars should be strong and control- 
ing for Christ's sake), the basis of our familiarity with 
the Bible must still be in our native tongue, and our use 
of the Bible to reach others must be in that tongue ex- 
clusively. It will be well to have two note-books at hand 
in this course of reading. In one you are to gather 
those texts you discover in your reading which suggest 
sermons or seem suitable for personal work, and together 
with the passage you are to set down concisely and 
clearly as possible the line of thought suggested. This 
book will cover the Homiletic and Pastoral Departments 
of your work. A second note-book, not for special texts, 
but for sections or incidents, should be devoted to the 
remaining departments of your work: to the conduct of 
public worship, to pedagogy, especially the training of 
children, and to sociology. If you are diligent these 
note-books will soon need to be succeeded by others; the 
set of books will prove invaluable in your life-work. 

Our language is peculiarly rich in versions of the 
Scripture. The three great versions we possess are^the 
work of many scholars, and the result of many versions 
to be here only noted. 

1. King Alfred's version, 901 A.D., was of parts of 
the Bible only. It was preceded by equally fragmen- 
tary versions of Beda, and of Bishops Eadfrid and 
Egbert. 

2. Wyclifs version in 1382 was the first rendering 
in our language of the whole Bible. It was from the 
Latin, and cost $200 a copy. 

3. Tyndale's version, in 1526, was from the original 
languages. Froude says: "The peculiar genius which 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 247 

breathes through our English Bible, the mingled tender- 
ness and majesty, the Saxon simplicity, and the preter- 
natural grandeur, all bear the impress of the mind of one 
man, William Tyndale." 

4. The Coverdale version, 1535, was based largely 
upon the Vulgate and the German versions. It is some- 
times quaint, but generally musical; some of the most 
rhythmical and familiar passages in the Psalms come 
from this version (see the Psalms in the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer). 

5. Besides, we are to acknowledge the influence of: 
The Great Bible, 1539, called Cranmer's; the German 
Bible, 1560, translated, under the influence of Beza and 
Calvin, by English refugees; the Bishops' Bible, 1568; 
and the Douai Bible, 1582, approved by the Eoman 
Catholic Church. 

Of the three great versions now in circulation, King 
James' version, 1611, was seven years in making by a 
company of fifty-four learned men. At the time it was 
issued, Shakespeare, Milton, and Bacon were living; it 
was the classic age of English literature. Faber says of 
this version: "It lives on the ear like music that can 
never be forgotten. Its felicities often seem to be things 
rather than mere words." The simplicity, directness, 
and strength of the Hebrew language, and the richness, 
clearness, and beauty of the Greek alike find free expres- 
sion in our classic English. The body of it is Anglo- 
Saxon with its strength and clearness, with which the 
grace of the Norman French, and the dignity of the 
Latin are cautiously and harmoniously mingled. The 
Bible is stronger than Shakespeare in words of Anglo- 
Saxon origin, much stronger than Milton. 



248 MODERN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

In Shakespeare's soliloquy of Hamlet, "To be or not 
to be/' of 81 words, 68 are Anglo-Saxon, while in Mil- 
ton's "Paradise Lost," in a selection from Book IV., of 
90 words, 72 are Anglo-Saxon. 

In the story of Joseph (Gen. xlii : 21-29), of 240 words, 
233 are Anglo-Saxon. In the Parable of the Sower 
(Matt, xiii), of 106 words, 103 are Anglo-Saxon. In the 
Lord's Prayer (Matt, vi.), of 65 words, 59 are Anglo- 
Saxon. 

It is to the Anglo-Saxon that we owe the beauty and 
strength of the first verse in the Bible — perhaps the 
most sublime sentence in all literature. 

The King James version is marred for continuous 
reading by being divided into chapters and verses — a 
purely human contrivance, the chapters having been 
introduced by Cardinal Hugo in the thirteenth century, 
and the verses by Eobert Stevens in 1551. 

During the two hundred and fifty years since the King 
James version, many valuable manuscripts were discov- 
ered, much advance in scholarship was made, and many 
words in that version became obsolete. In 1870 a large 
company of 101 scholars, from many denominations and 
from many educational institutions, was formed, and 
began a new version. Sixty-seven were British scholars 
and thirty-four American. The purpose was to make an 
absolutely correct version, but to retain, as far as pos- 
sible, the clearness, strength, and music of the Authorized 
version. The Bevised version was completed in 1885. 
As many of the suggestions of the American scholars 
were not embodied in the text, but arranged in an 
Appendix, when the British company disbanded, the 
American company continued their existence and labors, 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 249 

and it became generally conceded that their renderings 
were the more expressive of the meaning of the original 
text. 

In 1901 the American Revised version was issued, 
happily in the millenary of the King Alfred version. 
While some of the music and the felicity of the King 
James version are lost, much is retained and great 
accuracy is secured. In both these late versions the 
chapter and verse divisions so necessary for reference 
are thrown in the margin, and the whole Bible is 
placed in our hands finely arranged for continuous 
reading. 

We will, therefore, in this course, select the American 
Bevision for our reading. 

The Bible is the inspired record of the religion 
of redemption growing out of a progressive Divine 
revelation. 

This religion is introduced in the Pentateuch; it is 
developed historically in the historical books, emotion- 
ally in the poetical books, and hopefully in the prophet- 
ical books of the Old Testament; it culminates in the 
revelation of the Son of God: historically in the society 
gathered by Christ in the Gospels and the Acts, emotion- 
ally in the Epistles from the heart to the heart, and 
hopefully in the whole outlook of the New Testament, 
especially in the Bevelation. 

The philosophy of the whole Bible treats of the three 
great themes of human thought: God, the Universe, 
and Man. It is based upon the four great truths of rev- 
elation: 

1. There is one God, a spirit. 

2. God created and rules the universe. 



250 MODERN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

3. God made man a spiritual being, capable of know- 
ing and having fellowship with Himself. 

4. God governs the world in righteousness. The re- 
demption of mankind is in righteousness and to right- 
eousness. 

Part I. The Old Testament 

Genesis is primitive history. In chapters i-xi it is 
the history of the race, covering vastly more than two 
thousand years. In chapters xii-1 it is the history of a 
family, covering over five hundred years. 

The history is largely in genealogies, arranged with 
little reference to chronology; and it is adorned with 
suggestive beginnings of customs, arts, nations; with 
glimpses of the early life of mankind, and with striking 
lives and events described in the true epic spirit, kin- 
dling the imagination and stirring the emotions; it is 
primitive history adorned with true epic stories. 

Genesis should be read in the light of modern science 
and historical research. While it was not written to 
teach either science or history, its bold statements are in 
striking harmony with both. It is free from the absurdi- 
ties of other ancient books. 

1. Science sees but one creative force in the universe; 
tells of successive stages of formation; makes man, tho 
akin to animals, distinct from them in mental and spiri- 
tual nature, the culmination of the earth formation; and 
holds to the solidarity of the race of man. In these four 
great particulars, and in many minor ones, it is in full 
agreement with Genesis. 

The first chapter of Genesis is the sign manual of its 
great Author, giving knowledge He alone could have 
possessed in that day, clothing it in the poetic visions of 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 251 

the human writer, which the advancing knowledge of 
modern times simply interprets. 

The first formation of the growing order is light; then 
comes the separation of the gases, and their condensa- 
tion into material conditions fitted for life; then the in- 
troduction of vegetable life in the seed or germ stage; 
then the clearing of the enveloping clouds of gases by 
vegetable life, and the shining in upon the earth of the 
heavenly bodies, which also have been passing through 
their formation stages; then the introduction of animal 
life in lowest or germ stage and its advancing ranks, 
until man, the culmination, is reached, and God intro- 
duces again a new element, his own spiritual life. 

There is all the room in the Bible account there is in 
nature for the theory of evolution, the manner in which 
God has evolved His great plan until the present condi- 
tion is reached. The great stages of its unfolding, the 
introduction of new forces, as vegetable, animal, and 
spiritual life, the presiding power of God ever present 
and revealing Himself — these are not only in the first 
chapter of Genesis as they are in nature, but they are 
there in the same marvelous order. Of Godless evolu- 
tion there is nothing either in nature or in the Bible. Of 
the mechanical instantaneous making of things there is 
nothing either in nature or in the Bible. The grandeur 
of the power and wisdom of God is seen in the gradual 
unfolding of His plan. Genesis differs from the Baby- 
lonian Hymn of Creation, not only in the oneness of 
God, but in the oneness and stately progression of the 
unfolding plan of creation. The same great plan of 
evolution, the evolution of God's plan, runs through the 
beginnings of customs, acts, and nations in the advance 



252 MODEKN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

of the human race hinted at in Genesis, and in the whole 
Bible theme; the religion of redemption is based upon 
the progressive revelation of God. 

2. Historical research has in modern times learned to 
read the literature of the two civilizations flourishing 
in the early days^described in Genesis. The living actors 
wrote accounts of their great deeds; these records, long 
lost to human knowledge, now tell their wondrous story. 
The Egyptian hieroglyphic rock books and papyrus 
rolls and the Assyrian cuniform brick books, many of 
them written before the time of Moses, and discovered 
and deciphered only in our day, while still only a frag- 
mentary literature, are in remarkable harmony with the 
early history of Genesis; they show that certain words 
in the Pentateuch, before supposed to be of a much later 
date, had existed before the time of Moses; that Moses 
would have been inferior to the men of his day if he 
could not have written a record of his deeds — in short, 
that the Bible account is as real and full of the color of 
the age as their own. 

The peculiarity of Genesis is its record of super- 
natural revelations of God. There are thirty-four such 
communications mainly made to individuals, and con- 
veyed in a great variety of ways — by vision, voice, 
dreams, symbols, angelic messengers, and by God's ap- 
pearance as a man. God's hand in nature and in the 
affairs of mankind is specially recognized. God reveals 
Himself also by His names — Elohim being the prominent 
one in use before the time of Moses. So everywhere 
and in many ways the majestic presence of God per- 
vades the whole book. 

The attribute of God most prominently revealed in 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 253 

Genesis is His Almightiness ; this is shown in creation, 
in the call of Abraham, in retribution toward Jacob, in 
providence toward Joseph. God is also significantly re- 
vealed as entering into covenant with man. 

Exodus is constitutional history. It shows the 
formation of a nation with laws and customs. It has 
three main divisions: 

1. Deliverance from Egyptian Slavery and Idolatry 
(chapters i-xviii). 

2. Giving the Law (chapters xix-xxiv). 

3. Building the Tabernacle (chapters xxv-xl). 

As in Genesis, the history is told in the true epic spirit; 
not in dry, dull details, but in a way to kindle the 
imagination and to stir the emotions. Thus the Story of 
the Plagues has the world as the audience, with two 
great nations, the parties in interest, in the background. 
Pharaoh and Moses are the great leaders in the stupen- 
dous scenes, while unseen, but always present, is the 
Great Jehovah. Egypt relied upon its great river, so 
prolific of life, and upon its cloudless sky. At God's 
command the river became a curse, the source of pests 
and pestilence touching life; the serene sky a terror, and 
in the darkness of night the joy and pride of each home 
went out in death. 

The revelation of God in supernatural ways is the 
prominent feature of the book, but this is an advance 
both in manner and substance upon the revelation given 
in Genesis. In manner the advance is as follows. New 
elements are introduced: (1) revelation to an individual 
as a messenger to others, and (2) miracles as authenti- 
cating a Divine messenger, and illustrating and enforcing 
the message. 



254 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

In substance the progress is shown in that (1) the 
prominent attitude of God is revealed to be His faithful- 
ness in fulfilling His covenants, and (2) that in the giv- 
ing of the moral law the absolute righteousness of God as 
the lawgiver is seen. 

The laws now begun continue through succeeding 
books, and should be classified. The Moral Law not 
only reveals the righteousness of God, but is an authori- 
tative description of the nature of man as God designed 
him. It has never been changed in the slightest particu- 
lar, nor can it ever be. It is perfect. 

The Civil Laws organize a society, and are to be en- 
forced by that society. They can not, therefore, be per- 
fect; they are subject to change, but in each stage they 
are the God-devised means of cultivating the people in a 
constant advance to a public opinion capable of enforc- 
ing righteous legislation. 

The Eeal Estate Laws, the Criminal Laws, the Com- 
mercial Laws of that young nation which was developing 
in those primitive times a high form of government, 
a true republic in ideal at least, as well as the social 
laws and customs, present not only valuable lessons 
but noble incentives to the most advanced nations of 
to-day. 

Leviticus is liturgical history. It tells of that im- 
portant feature of national life, the worship of a people. 
In the first sixteen chapters worship is described, in the 
last chapters the worshipers are described. The attri- 
bute of God most prominently revealed is holiness. He 
institutes the worship and impresses His holiness upon the 
worshiper. Note the frequent use of the word "holy," 
and how the idea is developed in the laws relating to 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 255 

clean men, clean animals, clean sacrifices, clean priests 
to approach a holy God. We turn to this book for our 
idea of holiness, and it is difficult to see how God could 
have taught man of holiness in any other way. 

Numbers is constitutional history. It describes 
the disciplining a mob of freed slaves into the order and 
obedience of a nation. God rules in the camp and on 
the march, enforcing order. The sentence for their dis- 
obedience executes itself in solemn silence for thirty- 
eight years, while God remains with them, cares for 
them, and trains the new generation into a law-abiding 
nation. 

The attribute of God most prominently revealed in 
this book is His justice ; its severity is true kindness. 

Deuteronomy is constitutional history continued. 
The true story told in the epic spirit is the sublime 
scene of a nation entering into covenant with God. It is 
a book of great orations, well worth the study of the 
preacher. Four orations of Moses are given in their set- 
tings. It is a series of orations having a culmination: 
the appeal of Moses to the nation to enter into the cove- 
nant with God. The orderly camp is established in 
Moab, at the entering in of the promised land. After a 
rest of several weeks, the people being in suspense, word 
is sent through the camp for the Elders to appear before 
Moses. To them Moses speaks the first oration (i:6- 
iv: 40). He announces his deposition. He can not lead 
them into the land. The appeal is to obey God. The 
assembly breaks up, and the news spreads through the 
camp. The second call follows in a few days, with the 
second oration (v:l-xi:32), wherein Moses delivers the 
book of Laws to the Elders, 



256 MODEKN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

In this oration Moses quoted the Ten Command- 
ments. The difference in the fourth commandment is 
accounted for by the fact that Moses, in quoting, adapts 
it to the appeal he is making. There is no change in 
the Moral Law; written upon Tables of Stone, it is in the 
Ark while Moses is speaking. 

The Code of Laws which Moses gives to the Elders 
follows (xii: 1-xxvi: 16). It has some changes from the 
prior laws, and gives this book its name: "The Second 
Law." 

The third call goes through the camp in a few days, 
and Moses gives his third oration (xxviii: 1-68), upon the 
Blessings of Obedience, based upon the impressive cere- 
mony to be observed when the Hebrews are in possession 
of their land. 

For the fourth time, after an impressive waiting of a 
few days, the assembly is called, and Moses gives the 
fourth oration, on the Covenant (xxix: 2-xxxi: 8). The 
culmination is thus reached, and the nation, under the 
appeal of Moses, enters into solemn covenant with God. 

There are at least three elements entering into a 
great oration: 

1. The personality of the orator. Here it was that 
of Moses, one of the greatest of men. 

2. The occasion — an important crisis grasped worthily. 
Here it was the people on the eve of entering the prom- 
ised land. 

8. The speech — worthy of the man and the occasion. 

Very few orators are great enough to be compared 
with Moses. Very few orations compare with these in 
lofty eloquence. We recall Demosthenes against Philip, 
Cicero against Cataline, Burke against Hastings, Web- 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 257 

ster against Hayne — great men, great occasions, great 
orations, to be compared with Moses speaking in advo- 
cacy of the covenant. Here is a greater nian, a greater 
occasion, and a greater series of orations; the marshaling 
of facts, arguments, and appeal with marvelous power. 
Deuteronomy is a book of eloquence, and closes in poetry. 
The song of Moses is followed by the blessing of the 
tribes, as he passes through them and goes up into the 
mountain to die. 

The attribute of God most prominently revealed in 
Deuteronomy is love, as He appeals to the people through 
Moses to enter into covenant with Him. 

The last four books of the Pentateuch may be called 
the Biography of Moses. He is presented not as a 
hazy myth, but as a clear-cut and distinct person of 
august and commanding character. Standing at the 
beginning of Hebrew history, institutions, and litera- 
ture, he is great enough to be the source of influences 
abiding to our day — especially great in that God spoke 
to him face to face. 

The five books may be described concisely: 

1. Genesis. Introductory, God seen in the beginning 
of things. He is Almighty. 

2. Exodus. Prophetic, God teaches in Deliverance, 
Law, and His Dwelling-place with His people. He is 
faithful and righteous. 

3. Leviticus. Priestly, God institutes worship. He 
is holy. 

4. Numbers. Kingly, God rules His people. He is 
just. 

5. Deuteronomy. The Covenant, God appeals to the 
people. He is love. 



258 MODEKN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Joshua gives the history of the Conquest of Canaan 
(chapters i-xii), and of the division of the conquered land 
among the tribes; the latter account may be called the 
' ' National Eecord of Deeds ' ' (chapters xiii-xxiv). The 
book is solid prose, concise and vivid, with one quotation 
of poetry, and it closes with the orations of Joshua. These 
may be compared with Napoleon's proclamations and 
Washington's farewell address, and they show Joshua 
was the worthy successor of Moses, both as general and 
orator. 

The campaigns of Joshua are studied with admiration 
in the military schools of our day. The book tells the 
story of a great change in history, a nation migrating 
and taking possession of a land by conquest. Such 
changes have been frequent in history; those made by 
the Saxons in England, the English in America, are the 
nearest to us in time and interest, but no such change 
ever wrought a greater or more beneficient effect in the 
world. 

Looking back upon the Pentateuch, we see that the 
whole atmosphere is one of the desert and Egypt; 
looking forward, the atmosphere is of Judea. This 
atmosphere is very difficult to give to a book, it be- 
longs to it from the time in which it was born. The 
Pentateuch gives the nation its Constitution. Joshua 
gives the nation its title of Conquest and its record of 
Deeds. 

The land of Judea, which for a long time after this 
gives its atmosphere and outlook to the books we are to 
read, is a mountainous land along the sea. The Great 
Desert thrusts itself against the Great Sea, and wrinkles 
itself up into mountains and valleys. This land is not 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 259 

isolated; it is rather the bridge over which the ancient 
world empires had to pass to meet each other. Lachish, 
near the sea, witnessed the great procession of the 
nations with the pomp of war and the riches of peace as 
Egypt passed north to Assyria, as Babylon passed south 
to reach the Nile, and, in later years, as Alexander carried 
Greek civilization into Egypt, as Pompey carried Eoman 
power to the south, as Saladin passed north to meet 
Eichard the Lion-hearted, and as Napoleon passed to 
the battle of Acre. Living up on the mountains and 
hills, the nation of Judah could watch, but need not be 
disturbed by the world empires passing along the rim of 
the land by the sea; by this same bridge the chosen 
nation could easily have reached the known world with 
the revelation of God had she obeyed her missionary 
calling. 

Geologically speaking, this land is the result of a great 
fault. In the wrinkling of the earth the strata became 
tilted and broke, one side sinking down while the other 
remained tilted up. 

The Jordan valley is a remarkable depression; nearly 
its whole length it is below the level of the Mediterranean 
Sea, and the Dead Sea is over one thousand two hundred 
feet below the Mediterranean, distant only about one 
hundred miles. On the other side the Great Desert 
stretches away to the Euphrates. How much the first 
crash of this remarkable geological fault had to do with 
the Flood, and the subsequent jars with the destruction 
of the Cities of the Plain, the crossing of the Eed Sea, 
and the crossing of the Jordan, can only be conjectured. 
The sea, the desert, the great depression, and the moun- 
tains, those at the north snow clad, together give the 



260 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

land a great variety of climate and much natural beauty, 
and these make great impression upon the character of 
the people and upon their books. 

The land is also a storied land, rich with reminiscence 
of the wandering patriarchs, and sacred from association 
with the deeds of men called of God to deliver the nation. 
It is a land of relics left to this day of the cities and 
civilization submerged by the incoming Israelites. 

The Judges is incidental history, a record of heroic 
deeds by heroic men. It may be called a book of 
heroism. It has been an inspiration in the struggle for 
freedom in all lands and ages. Seven servitudes and 
fourteen judges are rapidly and vividly described; long 
intervals of peace are passed over in silence. The gov- 
ernment was largely tribal, the worship of God was the 
main centralizing power. The people were taught local 
self-government and dependence on God, and thus the 
national civilization grew. The condition was that of 
a conquering people settling in a land from which the 
original inhabitants were not fully expelled. Eace antag- 
onisms were inevitable. The central range of moun- 
tain and hill country was largely in the hands of the Is- 
raelites, but the plains along the Great Sea were mainly 
held by the Canaanites. The Israelites were often con- 
taminated and enslaved. Patriotic leaders arose and 
delivered them. The heroes were strong men of many 
noble qualities, but many of them, judged by our moral 
standard, were very faulty, and in a struggle for life 
with barbarians they committed deeds not to be justified 
by the moral sense of to-day. 

We are to remember that the Bible does not sanction 
all it records. Many deeds of those acting under the 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 261 

general direction of God were not commanded by such, 
direction nor approved by God. 

The first sixteen chapters cover the history, the last 
five chapters are an appendix describing features of the 
social life of the time covered by the history. 

Ruth. The age of the Judges, tho rude, produced the 
scene and probably the book of Buth, a beautiful idyl of 
home and love and peace. Goethe says: "Buth is the 
loveliest specimen of epic and idyllic poetry in all 
literature.' 7 

The attribute of God most fully revealed in these 
books is His righteousness in His moral government of 
nations, putting down the corrupt and raising up the 
righteous. 

The growth of righteousness in the Israelites is seen in 
the struggle for liberty and in the virtues of peace, in 
Gideon and his fellow heroes not only, but in Naomi, 
Buth, and Boaz. A further evolution of righteousness is 
recorded in the following historical books. 

I. and II. Samuel. The two books were originally 
one. They bear the name of Samuel on account of his 
prominence in the great change in Israel's history they 
record. He was a great man raised for a great occa- 
sion. First, he was the greatest and best of the judges; 
not merely a military chieftain, but a religious reformer, 
good as well as great, the culmination of that age. 
Second, he was the founder and leader of the schools of 
the prophets. Third, he was the maker of kings, tho 
he never sought to be a king himself. He introduced 
the two great orders, prophets and kings, into the coming 
age. The idea was that the king was to reign under 
God, and was to be subject to the will of God as com- 



262 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

municated by the prophet. In the schools of the 
prophets at Bethel, Jericho, and Gilgal, spiritual gifts 
were developed, religious exercises fostered, and students 
educated (I. Sam. x : 10, xix : 18-20). The prophets be- 
came privy counselors of the kings, instructors of the 
people, preachers of righteousness, and historians of the 
nation. They afforded a counterpoise to the despotism 
of kings, to the formalism of priests, and to the de- 
generacy of the people. The line of the prophets as- 
sumes growing importance by the side of the line of the 
kings as the history advances, until it culminates in 
written prophecy. The prophets take the same attitude 
toward king and people that Samuel, their great 
founder, did. 

I. and II. Kings. The two books were originally 
one. The books from Joshua through Kings form a con- 
tinuous history from the covenant people taking posses- 
sion of the promised land unto the Babylonian captivity. 
This history seems to be a compilation from many 
records, and a selection, passing many things we would 
like to know, choosing and dwelling upon things bearing 
upon their plan. The aim of the books is to show that 
God rules in history, that among nations He follows 
sin with punishment and repentance with deliverance; 
that He deals with His covenant people, and pre- 
fers some kings to others, as they keep or break the 
covenant. 

The two books of Kings are divided as follows: 

1. The Eeign of Solomon (I. Kings, i-xi). 

2. The Divided Kingdom, from Solomon to the de- 
struction of the Northern Kingdom. This is divided 
into three periods: 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 263 

(a) The period of antagonism of the two kingdoms 
(I. Kings xii-xvii). 

(6) The period of friendly relation by intermarriage 
(I. Kings xvii; II. Kings xi). 

(e) The period of renewed antagonism (II. Kings 
xi-xvii). 

3. The surviving Kingdom of Judah (II. Kings 
xviii-xxv). 

The undivided kingdom, under Saul, David, and 
Solomon, lasted only one hundred and twenty years. 
The divided kingdoms lasted two hundred and thirty 
years longer, to the fall of Samaria, B.C. 722. The 
surviving Kingdom of Judah lasted one hundred and 
thirty-four years longer, to the destruction of Jerusalem, 
b.c. 588. 

I. and II. Chronicles form but one book. 

This book might be kept to be read last of all the Old 
Testament; but we shall read it in sections with the 
book of Kings, and in connection with the poetic and 
prophetic books. The name, u Chronicles, ? ? comes from 
Jerome, who called it "a chronicle of the whole sacred 
history, from Adam to the restoration from Babylon. ' ? 
It is a more appropriate title than that given in the 
Septuagint, "the things passed over," as it is not a 
supplement, but a selection largely from the same sources 
as the other books, repeating many things as well as 
adding some, with the special aim of the compiler to 
encourage and direct the returned exiles to reorganize 
their national life, and especially their national wor- 
ship. The history is largely confined to the Kingdom 
of Judah, and dwells more upon the worship of the 
Temple than upon the wars of the kings, and gives 



264 MODEUN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

special emphasis upon those kings distinguished for zeal 
in worship. 

The early chapters of genealogy show these poor exiles 
their splendid ancestry, give to families and tribes hints 
of their inheritance, and to the Levites of their rights 
and duties in reestablishing the worship of the Temple. 

The lives of David and Solomon, the great kings of 
the nation's glory, are especially seen in the light of 
their religious observances. The date of the book is 
evidently long after the return from Babylon, the 
descendants of David are traced until the sixth genera- 
tion after Zerubbabel (I. Chron. iii : 19), probably to 
the beginning of the Greek conquest of Judea. 

From these historical books we will now read the life 
of David, and in connection with his life and times we 
will read the five books of Psalms. 

David. Great prominence is given to David in the 
Bible. A fuller account is given of his life than of any 
other mere man, and in his influence on the nation and 
the world he is excelled only by Moses. Sixteen chap- 
ters of I. Samuel relate to his life before he came to the 
throne, and two whole books (II. Samuel and I. Chron- 
icles) give his life as a king. He ranks high with the 
great men of other nations. He was great as a general 
and statesman. He consolidated the tribes into a nation, 
and for the first time secured the undisputed possession 
of the whole land; he spread his kingdom to the south 
to the river of Egypt, and to the north to the great river 
Euphrates, and was on the eve of becoming a world con- 
queror, when God checked him by punishing the census 
taking. In fostering national prosperity, commerce, and 
art he manifested vigor and genius. He found Jeru- 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 265 

salem a village of hovels, and left it a city of palaces. 
From Ms time it became one of the world's capitals, and, 
tho on no commanding position of land or sea, it has had 
more important influence on the world's history than 
Thebes or Babylon, Athens or Eome. He was great as 
an organizer and leader: he organized a great army, 
kept it in fine discipline, and yet did not withdraw it 
from peaceful employment. Of its twelve divisions each 
served a month, and then returned to the duties of home; 
thus the soldier spirit was distributed and kept alive 
throughout the kingdom; in this it was an even better 
system than prevails in Germany to-day. 

He was specially enthusiastic and happy in the organi- 
zation of the worship of the nation. He centered it in 
the Tabernacle, and so prepared it for the Temple. He 
caught the spirit of the Mosaic enactments and carried 
them out royally. The magnificence of the worship was 
worthy of the great nation he formed and ruled. The 
single feature of music was grand beyond description. 

Of the twelve divisions of the choir and orchestra each 
served a month, and then returned to their homes in the 
different parts of the land; thus "the worship spirit was 
distributed and preserved alive throughout the kingdom, 
and the whole choir was kept in fine training. Then on 
the great feast days, when the choice of the whole nation 
gathered at Jerusalem, the whole choir and orchestra 
assembled to lead their worship of praise. The great 
choir of four thousand trained voices and the orchestra 
of three hundred of all kinds of instruments led the 
great chorus of the whole nation in singing the psalms to 
the praise of God in the open air in the courts of the 
Tabernacle upon Mount Moriah, and made the bending 



266 MODEBN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

heavens, the roof of God's great temple, resound with 
His praise. 

Bible Poetry. There are four kinds of poetry found 
in the Bible. 

1. The Epic, which describes action: a story is told in 
a way to awaken the imagination and to stir the feelings. 
The earliest bit of poetry of this kind is the sword song 
of Lamech. In Hebrew the forms of prose and poetry 
are so near akin that we may call the story of Joseph an 
epic, just as Goethe says Euth is the finest idyl in lit- 
erature. 

2. Dramatic, which presents the actors who speak 
for themselves. This is rare in the Bible outside of Job, 
which is a drama; also there is some spiritualized drama 
in the Prophets. 

S. The Didactic, which clothes the truth taught in a 
poetic garb, and sometimes casts it into a form kindred 
to the sonnet. E.g., Prov. i : 10-19. 

If. The lyric, which sings of the reality that lies back 
of scenes and of all action. The lyric predominates. 

Hebrew poetry is simple and grand, both in form and 
in spirit, and so loses few of its striking features by 
translation. Its harmony is not of measured feet or 
rhyme, but that of parallelism of thought. The poetry of 
nature, it may be called; the rapid accumulation of 
thought and feeling in some gifted souls results in the 
quick repetition of short sentences, as passionate feelings 
express themselves in quick breathings, rapid heart- 
beats, marching steps. The rhythm is like the swing of 
a pendulum, like the tramp of an army, like the stately 
stride of a king; short sentences step along after each 
other in the march of rhythmic thought. 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 267 

Scripture poetry addresses the mind's eye by its pic- 
turesqueness. Each, poem is a gallery of word paintings, 
charming the eye as the natural rhythm charms the ear. 

Psalm xxix, the Song of the Thunderstorm, gives an 
example of both sight and sound harmony. It graphically 
pictures the majestic sweep of the storm as it rises from 
the great sea, sweeps over the mountains and passes 
away into the desert. We hear the seven thunder voices 
growing in power and then dying away in the distance. 
Now the earth is fresh and the sky clear, and everything 
in the great world, the Temple of God, cries " Glory ! " 

The element of poetry is very large in the Bible. 
The books Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, and 
Lamentations are entirely poetic. The line between 
poetry and prose being less sharply marked than in our 
English literature, those great orators, the prophets, not 
infrequently rise into poetic strains. Thus also in the 
historic books a vivid story sometimes bursts forth from 
prose into poetry, as the Song of Moses at the Bed Sea, 
of Balaam, and of Deborah and Barak. He who has 
the poetic ear will also gladly recognize that many say- 
ings of our Lord Jesus Christ are gems of poetry, radiant 
with beauty and ringing with music. The preacher of 
the Gospel should seek to clothe himself with the power 
of the orator and the poet, to make men see the truths 
he preaches, and feel their full force; and to this end he 
should be a diligent student of Bible Poetry, and of that 
which is so close akin to it — -Bible Oratory. 

While we read the lives of David and Solomon we 
shall read the poetry; when we come to the later kings 
we shall read the oratory of the prophets, with their 
outbursts of poetry. 



268 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

The Psalms. This Book is the religions song-book 
of Israel. It contains the varied experiences of God's 
ancient people voicing themselves in song. Milton says: 
" There are no songs comparable to those of Zion." The 
poet looks into his own heart, and ont npon the scenes of 
nature and the experiences of mankind, and then up into 
the face of God and sings. There are varying moods of 
faith and doubt, hope and despair, praise and prayer, 
often in the same psalm, but the dominent note is always 
the worship of God. 

The minister who is to lead the people in their worship 
of God should train and incite himself to the spirit of 
true worship by a constantly growing familiarity with 
the Psalms. The book of Psalms is more quoted in the 
New Testament than any other single book of the Old 
Testament. It has found a prominent place in the pub- 
lic worship of the Christian Church of all nations and 
ages. The law is God's voice to the soul. The Psalms 
are the soul's response. The five books of the Law are 
God's fivefold voice to man; the five books of the 
Psalms are man's fivefold response to God. The Law 
shows what religion ought to be; the prophets show 
what religion was not; the Psalms show what religion 
was. That which goes straight to the individual heart 
to-day must have come from the individual heart in that 
long-ago day. The contrition, appeal, praise of indi- 
vidual hearts, become the collective experiences of the 
worshiping people of God in all ages. 

There are three grounds of judging the date and 
authorship of a psalm: 

1. The titles. These, while probably not the work of 
the authors, are still very ancient. They are found in 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 269 

the Septuagint translation, and were probably written by 
the compilers of the five books. 

2. The historical allusions found in many psalms. 

3. The style and language. This is a difficult ground, 
and decisions vary, according to the taste and judgment 
of each critic. In trying to live a little while in the 
Kingdom of David we are probably in the psalm country 
and age. For while the ninetieth Psalm's title ascribes 
it to Moses, and while the historical allusion in Psalm 
cxxxvii makes it a psalm of the Babylonian exile, the 
weight of internal and external evidence makes David 
the great psalmist. 

The Psalms have their Golden Age, not at the begin- 
ning of the nation's worship nor in its decline; it is the 
days of prosperity and hope that sing the praises of God. 
The great king gave the key-note, the praises of all the 
ages follow, even to our day. 

The three prevailing ideas in Hebrew life find full 
expression in the Psalms. 

1. God is in covenant with man. Psalm lxxxix is a song 
of the Covenant. 

2. The Messiah is the subject of the Covenant. Psalm lxxii 
is a song of the coming King. 

8. Righteousness is the law of the Covenant. Psalm cxix 
is a song of the Law. There is only slight allusion to the 
ceremonial law and observances in the Book. 

Three elements enter into the Messianic Psalms. 

1. The experimental. The Psalmist expresses his own 
experiences in a way that more fully expresses the 
deeper experiences of the Messiah. Psalm xxii is a Song 
of the Suffering Messiah. 

2. The rapturous. The Psalmist, cherishing the prom- 



270 MODEEN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

ise of the coining Messiah, sings of Him in lofty strains. 
Psalm xlv is a Song of the Glorious King. 

3. The predictive. Certain features of the life of the 
Messiah which could only have been foretold by the 
spirit of God are enshrined in the Psalms. Psalm xvi 
is a Song of the Messiah's Eesurrection. 

Several things should enter into our consideration of 
the Imprecatory Psalms. 

1. There are only a few among many — only six among 
one hundred and fifty. 

2. As inspired utterances, they express the righteous 
judgment of God against sin. There are as strong de- 
nunciations in the teachings of Christ, and to about the 
same extent. 

3. They express the righteous indignation of the head 
of the state against the enemies of the state, as our Presi- 
dent might denounce anarchists. 

4. The garb of these Psalms, as of all poetry, comes 
from the age in which the poet lived, many centuries 
before Christ. 

5. The great provocation of cruel enemies awakened a 
strong spirit of resentment, and in selecting poetic 
figures the poet reflects this spirit. 

In all these elements these Psalms are the reverse of 
the lax views of sin prevailing to-day, and form a needed 
iron tonic for our moral weakness. 

Many psalms seem to have been born of the occasion, 
to be the free and unpremeditated outburst of great 
genius. One of the most stirring poems of our day, 
Eudyard Kipling's "Eecessional," was so born. Psalm 
xlvi, the Song of Deliverance, is evidently such a poem. 
Other psalms seem to have been prepared with a clear 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 271 

purpose for Temple Worship, and with much artistic 
skill. They bear indications of having been set to music 
and sung in parts, solo and chorus. Example, Psalm 
cvii, the Song of the Eedeemed. We can but faintly 
imagine its effective rendering in the open air in the 
courts of the Temple by the great choir of four thousand 
voices, with the full orchestra accompaniment of three 
hundred instruments. The Prelude is sung by a few 
strong voices, with trumpet accompaniment, to prepare 
for the great theme. Then the succession of strophes, 
the description of distress, the cry for help, the great 
deliverance, the call for praise, are rendered with suit- 
able voices and instruments. Four of these strophes, 
" The Travelers, " " The Prisoners/' "The Sick," "The 
Sailors," succeed each other with increasing power. 
Then the whole culminates in the grand chorus sung by 
the full choir and the entire congregation, with all 
the instruments of music sounding the praises of the 
redeemed. 

The Song of the Law (Psalm cxix) is wrought out with 
great elaboration of form, but secures also much of the 
free spirit of song. It is an acrostic of groups of eight 
verses, and each verse, with a single exception, gives 
some title or description of the law of God. 

In the last book of Psalms there are three groups : (1) 
the Hallel (Psaimscxiii-cxviii), sung at the great feasts, 
especially at the Passover, and which was probably the 
hymn which our Lord and his disciples sang when they 
left the upper room after the institution of the Lord's 
Supper; (2) the Songs of Ascents (Psalms cxx-cxxxv), 
used by the pilgrims from all parts of the land as they 
ascended to the great feasts at Jerusalem; and (3) the 



272 MODEKN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

Hallelujah (Psalms cxlvi-cl), in which the exultant 
spirit of worship culminates in a great outburst of praise 
to Jehovah. 

Selah, Gittith, and kindred interjections, or annota- 
tions, are Hebrew words so ancient and technical that 
their meaning can not be fully ascertained; they are 
probably musical terms, some of them names of tunes, 
others directions for instruments, and so they become to 
us, with their dim memories, a kind of telephone to con- 
vey to our listening ears the strains of distant music in 
the Temple courts of old Jerusalem. 

In the early Church the book of Psalms was the first 
book put into the hands of her young converts, and no 
one could be admitted to the ministry of the Word 
unless he knew the Psalter by heart. The book should 
be the constant study of the minister, and many of its 
choice passages should be committed to memory; it will 
quicken his experience of the Divine grace and greatly 
enrich his preaching, and especially his prayers, as he 
leads the people in the public worship of God. 

Israel was one kingdom, and very prosperous under 
David, the Great, the Warrior, the Psalmist, and under 
Solomon, the King of Peace, the Magnificent, the Wise. 
This short age was the culmination of four centuries of 
advancing civilization, and it gave rise to two results of 
great influence on the life of the nation in all its future: 

1. The Temple. The idea of the Tabernacle, the 
Dwelling-place of God, the Palace of their Heavenly 
King, who abode in the Holiest Place, was continued. 

2. The Literature. Prosperity singing its songs of 
praise is the prevalent note of the Psalms. David was 
the great psalmist, tho there were many others. 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 273 

The Wisdom Literature. Wise sayings arise in 
prosperous times from the experience of the past and its 
results. It is natural, therefore, to find in Solomon, the 
"Wise King, the leading writer of Hebrew gnomic phi- 
losophy, tho he was followed by many other writers of 
sententious literature. 

The Proverbs. The philosophy of the Bible is di- 
rected in concise sayings to the conduct of life. The 
absence of allusions to Israel's national position and 
distinctive religious observances shows the practical 
bearing of religion upon universal life and conduct. If 
one to-day aims to be a good statesman, or to excel in 
business, here is a manual of wise sayings well worth his 
careful attention. 

Proverbs arise in two ways: (1) A wise observer of 
the experience of mankind forms the epigrams from his 
own reflection. The first nine chapters of Proverbs are 
of this kind; they form a poem in praise of wisdom 
composed of eighteen sonnets. 

2. The general experience of mankind through the 
ages voices itself in wise sayings, and the collector sim- 
ply separates them from the common place. The re- 
mainder of Proverbs is largely of this kind, tho there 
are found a few sonnets in it, especially the closing praise 
of the virtuous woman. 

Ecclesiastes. The philosophy of the Bible is directed 
to the meaning of life in its general aim. The first half 
of Ecclesiastes shows that the pursuit of knowledge, 
pleasure, or profit of any kind, as an end in itself, is 
vanity. The second half shows that the moderate enjoy- 
ment of these things, by a being responsible to God, is 
wisdom. The dignity of man is his accountability to 



274 MODEKN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

God. The book closes with a symbolic poem of old age, 
making the disagreeable features of declining life grace- 
ful by symbolic dress. 

The Song of Songs is a poem of pure wedded love, 
the greatest and best love-song of all literature. It 
throbs with passion. 

The King has made a love match, and he and his 
bride can not fully express their feelings for each other. 
He won the lowly maiden disguised as a lowly shepherd; 
this poem expresses their mutual feelings when, having 
brought his bride to Jerusalem, he throws off his dis- 
guise, and she learns she is the bride of the great 
King. It is a poem especially dear to Christians, because, 
while not at all allegorical, it beautifully illustrates the 
marriage of the greater King and His more lowly bride 
— Christ and His Church. 

Job probably belongs to the palmy age of Hebrew 
literature, tho there is the complete absence of all refer- 
ence to past history or to present conditions, while the 
whole atmosphere is of a time before Abraham. It is a 
masterpiece of poetry. Carlyle says: "I call the book 
of Job one of the grandest things ever written by pen." 
Froude says: "It towers up alone far above all the 
poetry of the world." Daniel Webster says: "It is 
the most wonderful production of any age or of any 
language." Schaff says: "Considering its antiquity 
and artistic perfection, it rises like a pyramid in the his- 
tory of literature, without a predecessor and without a 
rival." It is the nearest to pure drama of any poetry 
in the Bible; the poet presents the actors, and they 
speak their thoughts and do their deeds. 

God is the principal person in the Bible, and the 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 275 

Bible poets instinctively feel the inappropriateness of a 
drama where this principal person is either brought for- 
ward or left out. The scene of Job is in the open air. 
The stage is not only the earth but the heavens. The 
friends and Job reason together. One friend at length 
describes the rising of a storm, and then the unseen God 
speaks from the wind- driven clouds. This simple but 
majestic drama is upon the colossal theme of the great 
suffering of a righteous man. The five solutions offered 
are: 

1. It is a test of character (chapters i-iii). 

2. It is a punishment of sin (chapters iv-xxxi). 

3. It is a discipline out of sin (chapters xxxii- 
xxxvii). 

4. It is a part of the mysterious plan and work of 
God (chapters xxxviii-xli). 

5. It leads to the triumph of the righteous man 
(chapter xlii). 

The drama culminates in the speech of God from th£ 
whirlwind, and in his rewarding Job. 

The Prophets. The great Kingdom of David and 
Solomon lasted nearly a hundred years, and was then 
divided. It formed two kingdoms, each becoming 
strong and prosperous. The northern kingdom was the 
larger and more favorably situated. It was called the 
Kingdom of Israel, and Samaria was its capital. The 
southern kingdom, tho smaller, lasted longer; it was 
called the Kingdom of Judah, and Jerusalem was its 
capital. Prophets of speech and action abound through 
all the history; the great prophets Elijah and Elisha are 
in the Kingdom of Israel. Written prophecy begins 
some two hundred years after Solomon; it gives us 



276 MODEEN PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

mainly the speeches of sixteen prophets, or sketches of 
their speeches, probably written by themselves after 
delivering. 

The object of all the prophets was to impress upon the 
people the presence of the righteous God and to awaken 
loyalty to Him. The tendency of revelation is to be- 
come largely a memory. The prophets felt the God 
who had revealed Himself in the past was present with 
them, the same God, and they tried to make kings and 
people feel this as well. They were preachers of right- 
eousness. The spirit of general prediction prevails, that 
righteousness is followed by prosperity, wickedness by 
adversity. They were men of their own times, applying 
righteousness to present affairs. They were seers, seeing 
to the heart of things, and thus they were men beyond 
their times and of all times, preachers of righteousness 
to the world. Besides, they were seers of the future. 
God revealed to them many future events, and this, they 
claimed, was the manifest token that He had sent them. 
This prediction of special events is, however, not a large 
element of their speeches, tho it is of very striking 
character. 

The more severe we make the standard of prediction, 
the more clear it becomes that God alone could have 
known the future so clearly and must have revealed it to 
them. There may be six rules applied to this prediction: 

1. The prediction must not be the result of reasoning, 
as Napoleon's saying: "Id fifty years Europe will be 
Eepublican or Cossack. " 

2. It must not be the result of historical study, as 
Macaulay's saying: "A New Zealander will muse over 
the ruins of London." 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 277 

3. It must not be the result of a happy conjecture, as 
the prediction of the marriage of a theological student. 

4. It must not be ambiguous and obscure, as the mut- 
terings of the oracle at Delphi. 

5. It must not be the result of scientific calculation, as 
the captain of a steamship saying: "In four hours we 
shall see land." 

6. It must not be a rapturous vision or a fanatical 
denunciation of a patriot. 

Applying these tests, it is clearly seen that many pre- 
dictions of the prophets must have been spoken through 
them by the God who had the future in His hand. Still, 
our main study of them is as preachers of righteousness, 
that we may apply their method and spirit to the 
preaching of righteousness in our life-work. 

The prophets are grouped locally. 

Of the sixteen only three are of the northern King- 
dom of Israel, and of these three only one was both of 
Israel and to Israel. Amos was from Judah to Israel; 
Jonah was from Israel to Nineveh; only Hosea was both 
from Israel to Israel. The remaining thirteen prophets 
belonged to the Kingdom of Judah. 

The prophets are grouped in point of time. 

(1) The group of the time of prosperity. In Israel: 
Amos, Jonah, Hosea. In Judah: Obadiah, Joel, Micah, 
Nahum, and Isaiah — eight in all. 

(2) The group of the time of adversity. Zephaniah, 
Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel — five in all. 

3. The group of the Bestoration. Haggai, Zechariah, 
and Malachi — three in all. 

Three literary forms are used by the prophets: 
1. The most prominent and most prevalent is oratory. 



278 MODEEN PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

The prophets were, first of all, preachers; several of 
them were ideal preachers. They are worthy of our 
careful study as orators, that we may become stimulated 
and cultured in pulpit delivery. 

2. The fervid oratory frequently flowers forth in poetry. 
The orator becomes rapt and soars aloft, and frequently 
this poetry is lyric poetry — it may be sung. 

3. The rapt orator rises into lofty personifications and 
dialog, and in rare instances the sphere of oratory is left 
for that of pure drama. Classes of people, as Israel and 
the Nations; states of feeling, as Repentance and Loy- 
alty; the land, the mountains, rivers, seas; these are 
personified; the prophet, and the great God Himself, 
act their great parts, and speak forth to each other their 
thoughts, feelings, and purposes. 

Prophets of Prosperity. In the time of prosperity 
the kingdoms of Judah and Israel were in a flourishing 
condition. Jerusalem and Samaria were large, splendid, 
and luxuriant capital cities. There was little outward 
sign of decay, but there was much political and moral 
corruption. The prophets of this period saw the inner 
corruption and growing weakness, and endeavored to 
arouse the people to righteousness by rebukes and threat- 
enings. 

Amos. At least two hundred years have intervened 
since the time of Solomon. The two kingdoms are now 
at variance; they are not in open warfare, but are dis- 
trustful and suspicious. Amos, living south of Jerusa- 
lem, feels the call of God to preach righteousness to the 
northern kingdom, and obeys. Coming from the south- 
ern kingdom, he has the difficult task to win a hearing 
in the Kingdom of Israel. His introduction to his one 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 279 

speech, or to his series of speeches, is one of the most 
skilful in all the history of oratory. He, as a prophet, 
announces the judgment of God upon the surrounding 
nations for their unrighteousness, and the conscience, 
and especially the national feeling, of the people of Israel 
approve him; he even goes so far as to threaten judg- 
ment against the rival Kingdom of Judah from which he 
came, and the people applaud. 

Having won a hearing, and having appealed to the 
conscience, he now applies his message to the Kingdom 
of Israel itself. The introduction covers the first two 
chapters. The next four chapters show faithfully the 
corruption ripe for judgment. The last three chapters 
vividly depict the visions of the judgment of God ad- 
vancing upon this corruption. Amos puts the emphasis 
of his preaching upon the justice of God. 

Hosea. While the visit of Amos to Israel was prob- 
ably very short, Hosea lived in Samaria. He is the 
only one of the prophets who is both of Israel and to 
Israel. It is probable that Hosea had a faithless wife 
whom he could not cease to love, and, reflecting upon 
his own sad experience, he saw it was but a faint illus- 
tration of the experience of God with the Kingdom of 
Israel for over two hundred years. There was logical 
arrangement in Amos; there is little logic in Hosea, but 
swift transitions of conflicting emotions, the tone of pas- 
sionate anguish and love in appeals and upbraidings. 
There were many speeches of Hosea probably, and we 
have sketches of his frequent appeals gathered in his 
book. As he speaks for God, two strong figures prevail, 
a faithless wife and a thankless child, and the prophecy 
shows forth alternately the burning indignation of God 



280 MODEKN PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

and his quenchless love, as wronged Husband and 
Father. As the parable of the Prodigal Son is the heart 
of the New Testament, so Hosea is the heart of the Old 
Testament, only in the New Testament there is success, 
here there is failure. The last appeal is made, and God's 
yearning love fails to win back the Kingdom of Israel 
from destruction. Hosea places the emphasis of his 
preaching upon the love of God. 

Jonah. The book is unique, in that it is the story of 
a prophet rather than a collection of his prophecies, and 
that this prophet is sent to a heathen nation. The 
flight, the prayer, and the mission are the marked divi- 
sions of the short book. The book itself seems significant 
of the Jewish nation, of its flight from its mission, of its 
marvelous preservation to this day; and it is prophetic 
of Israel at length becoming the messenger of Christ, and 
bringing about the conversion of the Gentiles. 

We now turn to the five prophets of the time of pros- 
perity who lived and preached in the southern king- 
dom, in Judah. 

Joel. Two hundred years have passed; the family of 
David is reigning in Jerusalem; the city is magnificent; 
the Temple of Solomon is the glory of the nation. The 
kingdom is outwardly prosperous, inwardly corrupt; 
the worship of God is formal and tainted with idolatry. 
Joel speaks in Jerusalem in a lofty form of poetic ora- 
tory, a kind of rhapsody; he gives a picture of the com- 
ing trouble as it impresses itself upon and is described 
by different classes of people. His vivid figure of ad- 
vancing judgment, as an incursion of locusts, insensibly 
changes into a metaphor of armies, the land before them 
as the garden of Eden, behind them a desolate wilder- 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 281 

ness. In the presence of these armies God calls to re- 
pentance, promises spiritual blessings, and proclaims 
the general judgment for all nations. 

Obadiah has some remarkable resemblances to Joel; 
cf. Joel iii : 3 c. Ob. 11; Joel iii : 14 c. Ob. 15. It is the 
shortest book in the Old Testament, and is directed 
against Edom as rejoicing over Judah. It is not like 
Jonah, a prophecy to a heathen nation; all prophecies 
against heathen nations were given to the nation of 
Judah teaching them of punishment by heathen nations 
used by God, but that these heathen nations were not 
therefore approved by Him. 

Micah lived in the country to the southwest of Jeru- 
salem. He saw the embassies going down to Egypt to 
secure favor. He witnessed the illegal land-grabbing of 
the rich about him. Feeling called of God to rebuke 
this wickedness, he goes to Jerusalem. There he wit- 
nessed the corruption of the rulers, and the luxury and 
licentiousness of the nobles. He boldly denounced both 
leaders and people, and preached righteousness in all 
the relations of life. He is the prophet of equality and 
fraternity, and predicted that the Messiah would come 
from the ranks of the lowly. 

Nahum prophesies altogether against Nineveh, the 
triumphant heathen power threatening Judah. This 
prophecy is not sent to Nineveh, but given to Judah, as 
in all such cases to show that God does not approve the 
nations he uses, but punishes unrighteousness in his own 
time and way wherever it is found. 

Nahum describes the Lord's majesty as He marshals 
the forces to destroy Nineveh, the meeting of the be- 
siegers and the besieged, and the complete destruction 



282 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

of the city. His prophecy, "I will make thy grave/' 
after a few centuries became true, and remains true to 
this day. The excavations of modern times in Nineveh 
simply unearth the skeleton of the empire then threaten- 
ing Judah. 

Isaiah was the greatest orator and poet of his day; he 
was probably of the nobility, a man of rich natural gifts, 
having all the polish of the court. He was fifty years a 
preacher of righteousness — a young man when he was 
called upon to preach against the luxury and profligacy 
of his time, a middle-aged man when he described the 
doom of Samaria and its lessons, and the old man elo- 
quent when he encouraged the people against Sen- 
nacherib. 

The style of his oratory is well worth our study. It 
was concise, to the point, bright with the frequent use of 
interrogation and dialog, filled with striking contrasts, 
adorned with many beautiful figures of speech and illus- 
trations, abounding in wide and lofty thought and strong 
feeling, and clothed in choice language. His methods 
were varied: he adapted himself to circumstances; the 
eloquent court preacher became the popular street 
preacher, and did at times the most extraordinary things 
to arouse the sluggish and make his message effective. 
He had the orator's instinct; he spoke for a purpose, and 
gave himself up fully to accomplish his purpose. Many 
of his speeches were to crowds in the Temple courts. 

His book is divided into two parts: The first part 
(chapters i-xxxix) is a collection of orations given on 
various occasions in his long life, with some historical 
references. 

The second part (chapters xl-lxvi) seems a continu- 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 283 

ous composition, a mingling of eloquent prose and poetry, 
written to cheer the pious in the coming captivity. We 
do not believe there were two Isaiahs — the marvel is 
that there should have been one. 

The servant idea is a striking feature of both parts of 
this book, the faint strain referring to himself (xx : 3) 
becomes stronger in Eliakim (xxii : 21), in all Israel 
(xlii), in the faithful and true Israel (xliv), until it rings 
out clear, and culminates in the mysterious person who 
makes atonement for his people and brings in the final 
glory (liii-lxvi). 

The title of God, "The Holy One of Israel, " is pecul- 
iar to Isaiah, and sounds through both parts of the whole 
book as the echo of the cry of the seraphim at the call 
of the prophet. He places the emphasis of his teaching 
upon the redeeming love of God. 

Isaiah stands midway between Moses and Christ, and 
he is more frequently quoted by Christ and His apostles 
than any other single writer of the Old Testament; no 
other Old Testament writer so fully anticipates the truth 
at last revealed in the Gospels. 

Prophets of the time of Adversity. We now pass 
to the five prophets of the time of adversity. They all 
belong to the Kingdom of Judah. About one hundred 
years had parsed since Isaiah spoke. The Kingdom of 
Israel had been entirely destroyed. Hungry- eyed enemies 
were now gathering around the Kingdom of Judah, while 
its corruption and weakness were preparing it for their 
easy prey. The prophets, before its fall, endeavored to 
arouse the people to repentance; and when the fall came 
they endeavored to keep alive faith in God. Jerusalem 
for many years tottered to its destruction; it was cap- 



284 MODEBN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

tured three times, each time rose in rebellion, and at last 
was ruthlessly destroyed. 

Zephaniah spoke in Jerusalem just before the first 
capture of the city. He is the herald of the coming 
storm, he reveals as by a flash the corruption that pre- 
vails, and he graphically describes the darkness of the 
coming judgment — first upon Judah, then upon all 
nations (chapter i-iii : 8). Then the night of storm 
passes and the day of salvation dawns — first for Judah, 
then for all nations (chapter iii : 9-20). His vivid depic- 
tion of the day of the Lord's wrath (i : 14-18) is the 
basis of the great hymn of the middle ages, "Dies irae } 
dies ilia." The description which closes the book, of 
the glorious appearing of the Lord bringing salvation, 
is equally sublime. 

Habakkuk speaks in Jerusalem when the blows are 
beginning to fall upon the devoted city, probably in the 
reign of Jehoiakim. He is greatly perplexed that God 
should give the victory to an idolatrous nation so much 
worse than Judah, and in the first chapter he expostu- 
lates with God. 

In the second chapter God gives him a vision from his 
u watch-tower 7? that the foe is drunk with power, and 
assures him that ' i the just shall live by faith. ' > He then 
pours forth wo after wo upon the triumphant idolaters, 
and closes in the third chapter with a hymn of splendid 
faith in God, however great the trials. He is a rapt 
orator, rising into flights of lofty poetry and rhapsody, 
and his aim is to sustain the faith of the pious in their 
sore trials from his own deep experiences as taught by 
God. Daniel Webster says : * i There is no writer, ancient 
or modern, more poetic than Habakkuk. v 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 285 

Jeremiah preached righteousness for over forty years, 
mainly in Jerusalem. His book gives many of his ora- 
tions in a setting of personal and national history. He 
was an orator of great power, and often enforced his ap- 
peals with dramatic and symbolic action. Beginning 
his work in the reign of Josiah, he lived through the 
various captures of Jerusalem, witnessed its total destruc- 
tion, and was then carried into Egypt, where he died. 
He endeavored to persuade the King and the people to 
submit to Babylon, and patiently to bear the just pun- 
ishment of their sins; for this distasteful message he was 
often persecuted. Naturally of a sensitive and timid 
disposition, and a great lover of his nation, he faithfully 
gave the message God sent through him in the face of 
great personal unpopularity and grave danger. He 
treats largely of individual religion and of God's care of 
trusting souls. 

Lamentations is a description evidently by an eye- 
witness of the desolation of Jerusalem. Poetry and 
oratory are closely akin, and the great orator may have 
been the great poet as well. The poem is the dirge of a 
city in five songs or laments. 

The first describes the desolation in terrible details. 

The second shows the cause of the calamity to be God's 
wrath. 

The third is the climax : the city itself, the great 
sufferer, moans out her distress. 

The fourth contrasts the prosperity of the past with 
the adversity of the present. 

The fifth is the great sufferer's agonizing prayer. 

The poem has thus its crescendo, its climax, and its 
decrescendo movement, and sobs itself into silence. 



286 MODEKN PEAOTIOAL THEOLOGY 

Tho filled with so great meaning, it is most artificial 
in form, as is often tlie case in Hebrew poetry. The 
first four laments are an acrostic in form, the climax 
being a threefold acrostic. 

Ezekiel was one of the captives of Judah carried to 
Babylon. He is the only one of the great prophets who 
spoke entirely outside of Judea. He had probably heard 
Jeremiah in Jerusalem, and, while Jeremiah remained in 
his native land, the captive Ezekiel became a preacher 
of righteousness to the exiles in Babylon. The captives 
were scattered in small settlements in Babylonia ; they 
were downcast at their own situation, but hopeful of 
return, as they thought it impossible that their great God 
would allow Jerusalem and His temple to be destroyed. 
Bumors spread among them that Ezekiel had had a 
vision calling him to be a prophet. Under the circum- 
stances the only way to consult him is to send delegates 
to his home. So, while Jeremiah preaches to excited 
crowds in the Temple Courts in Jerusalem, Ezekiel 
speaks to small groups of elders, who come to ask him: 
"Have you any message from God? When will we re- 
turn to Jerusalem ? ? ' 

The first part of the work (chapters i-xxxii) contains 
sketches of speeches given before the fall of Jerusalem to 
warn the people against false hopes of its preservation 
and of their return. 

The second part (chapters xxxiii-xlviii), given after 
news reaches them of the destruction of Jerusalem, 
cheers the people with promises of a glorious future. 
The great vision of God pervades the whole work; it is 
first seen in the call of the prophet and fully described; 
then it is seen in the gradual departure of the Lord from 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 287 

the Temple and the city (chapters ix-xi) ; and it appears 
again in the Lord's return to the Temple (chapter xliii). 
The glorious new Temple and new city seem beyond the 
horizon of the earth. Ezekiel combats the idea that the 
people suffered for the sins of their fathers (xviii : 2), 
and were under a curse no repentance could remove 
(xxxiii : 10); the new order is to be based on individual 
heart religion; God is equally just to all, and He also 
renews the heart. As an orator Ezekiel abounds in 
great visions (chapter xxxvii), symbolic actions (chap- 
ters iv, v), highly figurative language (chapter xxvii), 
and glowing hopes. 

Daniel is a fragmentary history of Daniel in Babylon, 
with description of the prophetic visions given him. The 
first half of the book contains six striking incidents, the 
last half four great prophetic visions. There was great 
danger that the knowledge and worship of Jehovah 
would be swept off the earth. The six striking incidents 
occurring in the capital of triumphant idolatry with 
cumulative power show that Jehovah still lives; they im- 
press the heathen nation, and keep alive the faith of the 
captives. 

The visions show that God rules among the nations. 
It is difficult to find a flaw in the life of Daniel; he was 
great and good, a captive, still the prime minister of suc- 
cessive dynasties throughout his long life; his prayer 
shows his consciousness of sin before God. 

Esther gives us a picture of the times following those 
of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; and, tho the name of 
God is not mentioned, His presence is felt. 

Ahasuerus is identified with Xerxes, who succeeded 
Darius in 485, and reigned over Persia twenty years. 



288 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Between the third year of his reign, when he made 
the feast (Esther i:3), and the seventh year when 
Esther was made queen (ii: 16) the battles of Thermop- 
ylae and Salaniis were fought (480 b.c), saving Greece 
from Persian power. Xerxes was capricious, passionate, 
and subject to the influence of court favorites. It is 
worthy of note that the three most marked instances of 
particular Providence in the Old Testament, Joseph, 
Daniel, and Esther, occurred during the reigns of the 
most powerful and arbitrary kings. 

The prophets of the time of Restoration are to 
be read in connection with the history of that time. 
Ezra and Nehemiah, counted as but one book in the He- 
brew, give the account of the return from Babylon and of 
the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple. The period 
covered is a little over a century, from 540 to 430 B. c. 
There is a striking contrast between the original con- 
quest of Canaan and the return of the captives from 
Babylon. In the first case it was a migrating nation 
manifestly favored of God, with a history of wondrous 
deliverance and guidance, and under a great and success- 
ful general. In the second place, a small company of 
earnest souls under the permission of a heathen nation, 
amid many dangers and discouragements, with a history 
of bitter defeat and captivity, and with no manifest favor 
of God, come to a land devastated by long wars and in 
the possession of strangers. Still, the scene is again in 
Judah, and the prophets again speak in their own land. 

Haggai speaks in the early part of the period of the 
Bestoration, the account of which is given in the first 
part of the book of Ezra. Sixteen years had passed 
since the first band of captives had returned. The 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 289 

people had builded comfortable dwellings for themselves, 
but had not rebuilded the Temple, the dwelling-place of 
their King, and they did not prosper. 

Haggai tries to stimulate them to the building of the 
Temple. He was probably an old man, and appeals to 
the memories of the fathers who had heard from their 
fathers of the glories of Solomon's Temple, with the 
splendid prediction that the glory of this Temple should 
be greater than that of Solomon's. 

Zechariah also tries to stimulate the people to the 
rebuilding of the Temple. He began his ministry while 
Haggai was speaking, and continued it probably after 
Haggai' s voice was silenced in death. He seems, espe- 
cially in the first part of the book, to have been a young 
man, hopeful and courageous, looking over all obstacles. 
Eight symbolic visions are given, each showing, and with 
cumulative power, that God favors His people in this 
work; and these are followed by a symbolic action show- 
ing that the true builder of the Temple shall be both 
King and Priest. The latter part of the book contains 
speeches of a later time, and has a wider outlook than 
the Temple. 

Malachi stands at the period of the close of the Bes- 
toration, at the close of the history given in Nehemiah. 
The City and the Temple are rebuilded, but the people 
mainly are merely formal worshipers, and their condi- 
tion is far from prosperous. He preaches righteousness 
in a way to arouse them out of a formal worship into 
hearty loyalty and great adoration of God. The great 
prominence he gives to the Divine name fostered in the 
coming age such a superstitious reverence for the name 
itself that Jehovah ceased to be pronounced except once 



290 MODEBN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

a year by the High Priest in the Benediction on the Day 
of Atonement. 

The histories and prophecies at the time of the Besto- 
ration belong to a depressed age, and are inferior in style 
and substance; but the prophets are still with the people, 
and Judah is again in its own land. 

With Malachi the flickering flame of Old Testament 
prophecy flares up and goes out. The voices of history 
and poetry and oratory cease in silence; but the long 
silence itself is impressive, the silence of waiting, the 
hush of expectancy, broken at last by the song of the 
angels announcing the birth of the Messiah. 

Two great characteristics of the period of the Bes- 
toration influence the succeeding age until the time of 
Christ. 

1. The regard for the written word in the religious 
life of the people gradually degenerated into an inordi- 
nate regard for the letter of the law. 

2. The opposition of the Samaritans developed into 
the rival worship and religious animosity of the time of 
Christ, 

Both the reverence for the written law and the Samar- 
itan acceptance of the five books of Moses indicate the 
common belief in the high antiquity and authority of 
the law prevailing in that day. 

Part II. The New Testament 

Our knowledge of Jesus Christ comes from the four 
Gospels. These Gospels differ from each other in strik- 
ing particulars both in style and substance. Why 
there should be four, and how they compare with each 
other, are questions of interest. 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 291 

While these Gospels give all the account we have of 
Christ and of His teachings, they nowhere intimate that 
Christ ever directed that they should be written, or that 
He ever wrote anything Himself. Christ's teachings 
were entirely oral. He commanded His disciples to 
teach orally, and trained them in this kind of teaching. 
The disciples, after the death of Christ, taught orally of 
His life, His teachings, and His death. As time passed 
two results followed: many believers in Christ were 
gathered in widely scattered centers of population in 
the Eoman Empire; and one after another of the origi- 
nal disciples died. The need now becomes evident that 
the oral teaching of the disciples should be reduced to 
writing. This is the account of their origin which the 
Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles give of themselves 
in their mutual relations. The Gospels and the Acts do 
not refer to each other, with the slight exception of the 
introduction of Luke and of the Acts. Nor do the Gos- 
pels and the Epistles refer to each other, showing that 
many of the Epistles were probably written before the 
Gospels; nor do the Acts and the Epistles refer to each 
other, the Epistles probably having been written before 
the Acts. The apostles do not seem to have had any 
thought of their writings ever being gathered in one book. 
Our New Testament does not come to us from the design 
of man, but fiom the plan of God unfolding in His provi- 
dence and by the inscrutable influence of the Holy Spirit. 
The first three Gospels were evidently written without con- 
cert or comparison with each other, and at about the same 
period, and in different sections, and for different classes. 

The oral teachings of the disciples would be the same 
in substance: the incidents of the life of Christ, espe- 



292 MODEEN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

cially the words of Christ, would be carefully recounted; 
but beyond this the selection and the emphasis would 
vary according to the taste of the teacher and the needs 
of the people. 

The teaching by Matthew would vary from that by 
Peter according to the taste of the men, and the teach- 
ing of the Jews would vary from that of the Greeks 
according to the needs of the people. 

This accounts for the variety in the Gospels. The 
three great races mingling in the Eoman Empire in that 
day were representative of the strong traits of human 
nature. The Jews represent self-righteousness, the 
Eomans self-control, and the Greeks self-culture; the 
Jews represent conscience, the Eomans will, and the 
Greeks intellect. The first three Gospels meet these 
traits of human nature, and so we have a reason for the 
existence of the three, while the fourth, evidently sup- 
plemental to the others, is addressed to the needs of be- 
lievers of all the races. 

Both the coincidences and the peculiarities of the four 
Gospels, the more we study them, confirm this view. 

If the arbitrary assumption be made that the contents 
of each Gospel equal 100, the proportion of passages 
agreeing and standing alone is as follows: 

Gospel Peculiarities Coincidences 

Matthew 42 58 

Mark 7 93 

Luke 59 41 

John 92 8 

It is clear that Mark is the least and John is the most 
original of all the Gospels. It is absurd, however, to 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 293 

jump to the conclusion that Mark is the basal Gospel. 
The Gospels, then, give us a written record of the preach- 
ing of the apostles. They show how the apostles pre- 
sented Christ to the different races of men, how they 
adapted their preaching to meet the needs of different 
classes of minds. 

As we have read the prophets as the great master 
preachers of the Old Testament, so we now read the 
Gospels to find out how the greatest preacher of all the 
ages, the Lord Jesus Christ, preached, and how those 
great preachers of the early Church carried the Gospel 
of Christ to all men. We should find many a hint and 
much stimulus to teach us how to preach. 

Matthew. Eenan calls Matthew "the most impor- 
tant book ever written. w Matthew is modest; not a 
single word or act of his is recorded in his Gospel after 
he became a disciple; it is only in his Gospel that the 
despised term " publican" is associated with his name 
in the list of the apostles, and he puts his name after 
that of Thomas, his associate, reversing the order of the 
other Gospels, and he tells us nothing about his being 
rich and generous; we have to go to the other Gospels to 
find this; this preacher loses himself in his subject. 

He shows us how he and others with him preached the 
Gospel to the Jews. His is well called the Gospel of the 
Kingdom, be tried to show the Jews that Christ was the 
promised King, the culmination of their long history, 
the fulfilment of their splendid prophecies. 

Christ is the Son of David, your promised King, the 
King of Eighteousness; this is the prevailing tone of the 
preaching to the Jews. The book is crowded with cita- 
tions from the Old Testament. Matthew was familiar 



294 MODEEN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

with the sacred books and used them freely to commend 
the Savior. 

He shows his business training in that he is methodical, 
and arranges the discourses of Christ, especially the par- 
ables, in an orderly and cumulative way. The procla- 
mation of the King of Bighteousness, the Sermon on the 
Mount, in which He strips off the accumulation of man's 
tradition and reveals the spirituality of God and of His 
commandments, the parables of the Kingdom, and the 
parables of the King, are separately grouped. 

Matthew gives more of the ivords spoken by Christ 
than does any other Gospel. Of the 24,000 words in 
Matthew, 13,742 were spoken by Christ; of the 15,209 
words in Mark, 5,070 were spoken by Christ; of the 
25,600 words in Luke, 11,579 were spoken by Christ; 
of the 19,200 words in John, 8,030 were spoken by 
Christ. 

Of the 106 passages in the Gospels containing refer- 
ences to the Kingdom of God, 50 occur in Matthew, 15 
in Mark, 38 in Luke, and 3 in John. Matthew records 
also a larger number of miracles than does any other 
Gospel. While the great deeds and the great words of 
the great King are thus freely given to the Jews as show- 
ing forth the Messiah, tivo parts of the Gospel make 
prominent the teaching of Christ in its method and 
aim. 

Part I. In chapters i-xvi: 21, Christ teaches that He is 
King; in chapter iii : 17 the Divine voice is heard; this 
is followed (chapter iv:17) by the nature of Christ's 
preaching, "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." 

Part II. In chapters xvi : 21-xxviii, Christ teaches that 
He must suffer and die. The change now in the nature 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 295 

of Christ's teaching (xvi : 21) is followed by the Divine 
voice (xvii :5). 

This shows that, both in the teaching of Christ, and in 
that of the disciples to the Jews, the sufferings and death 
of their King were set forth fully and clearly. One-third 
of this, as of the other Gospels, is preparatory to and 
declarative of the death of Christ. 

Two subjects of special study in this and in the other 
Gospels are given to be reported upon by you. (1) 
The content of the Kingdom of God, and (2) the teach- 
ing of Christ Himself concerning the meaning of His 
death. 

If we are at all to resemble the preachers brought be- 
fore us by " this most important book ever written,'' the 
Kingdom of God and the death of Christ must be the 
burden of our preaching. 

Mark has also the same two parts. 

Part I. In chapters i-viii :31 we have Christ's teach- 
ing that He is King (i : 15). 

Part II. In chapters viii : 31-xvi, Christ teaches of His 
sufferings and death (viii :31). 

This Gospel may be called the Gospel of Great Deeds, 
of the Divine Man, of the Conqueror. Mark may be called 
the interpreter of Peter, as he wrote for the Eoman 
Christians; he shows how the active, impulsive Peter 
and other disciples preached to the conquering, energetic 
Eoman. To commend Christ to the heroic Eoman, He 
is set forth as an heroic conqueror. This shortest Gos- 
pel is rapid, vivid, energetic. Words of movement 
occur frequently. It contains no extended speech, and 
only four parables, but describes eighteen miracles. The 
miracles peculiar to Mark are described invii:32 and 



296 MODEEN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

viii : 22. The large synagog ministry in the early life of 
Christ is just hinted at (i : 39— ii : 1), and this section con- 
tains a striking miracle. Mark gives the impression 
that Christ's life of ministry was very short, only a few 
months. He gives vivid photographic touches — his is the 
realistic, the pictorial Gospel — and he brings the looks 
and gestures of Christ before us (iii:5, 34) and how he 
impressed men by His bearing (x :32). 

One-third of this rapid Gospel of the Conqueror is given 
to the last week, when the great deeds cease, and the Con- 
queror gives Himself up to the Eoman cross. 

Peter and Mark did not hide the cross in preaching 
to the Eomans. The greatness of the Conqueror magni- 
fied the greatness of His self-sacrifice. 

Luke stands alone as being the only Gentile who 
wrote a book of the Bible, and he wrote two; all other 
books of both the Old and New Testaments were written 
by Jews, with the possible exception of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews. His Gospel is the longest, most chronolog- 
ically arranged, and most complete of the four. The 
peculiarities are striking: the visions of angels, the beau- 
tiful hymns, the heart parable of the lost son, and the 
long journey through Perea to the cross. The gracious- 
ness of the Savior to all mankind, His benevolence 
and saintliness to the Gentiles as well as to His own 
kindred, are dwelt upon with delight. The way 
Christ appealed to a cultured, beauty-loving Greek, and 
was presented to the Greeks, finds expression in this 
Gospel. 

Eenan has good reason to call it "the most beautiful 
book ever written." Luke may be called the interpreter 
of Paul j he shows how the great apostle to the Gentiles 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 297 

and the disciples presented Christ to the intellectual and 
cultured Greeks. 

Luke also, as did Matthew and Mark, describes the 
turning-point in Christ's ministry, the confession of the 
disciples, followed by the Transfiguration; up to this 
time the burden of Jesus' teaching had been that He 
was Christ, the King; from this time it is that He 
would suffer and die. 

This turning-point is brought forward a little earlier 
in this Gospel (ix:22) than in the others, and at least 
the same prominence in this beautiful Gospel for the 
beauty-loving Greeks is given to the Cross of Christ. 
Surely the preacher of to-day who does not make the 
Cross and the Kingdom prominent in his preach- 
ing, fails to take to his heart the teaching of Christ and 
of his disciples in the Gospels. Both Mark and Luke 
had not been with Christ; the other Gospels give a large 
element of the personal impression of Christ upon the 
writers, these two Gospels give the general impression 
of Christ in His life and teachings upon the whole body 
of the disciples, and also interpret the general teachings 
of these disciples to the world. 

This Gospel may be called the Idealistic Gospel, the 
Gospel of the Son of Man. There are thirty-five mir- 
acles described in the Gospels, most of them miracles of 
healing and rescue of man from distress. These are evi- 
dently only a few of the miracles Christ wrought, speci- 
mens of His general work. There are several general 
descriptions of healing — e.g., Matt. iv:23 — which show 
that as Christ passed through the land, disease and mis- 
ery gave place to health and happiness. 

Luke gives more miracles of healing than any other 



298 MODEEK PBACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Gospel ; and describes them from the standpoint of a 
physician. The Kingdom of God and this feature of 
Christ's work are prominent in both Matthew and Mark; 
the Kingdom is described not only by the words, but by 
the acts of the King. 

Live in "Hell's Kitchen/' the worst tenement region 
of New York City, and in a few days you will proba- 
bly have a sore throat, a severe headache, feverishness 
and debility, and a craving for a stimulant. The mis- 
sion of the Church is not only to save souls out of 
" Hell's Kitchen," but so to establish the Kingdom of 
God in New York City that there shall be no " Hell's 
Kitchen." 

This is far different from the "Faith Cure " and from 
"Christian Science" ; without question the mind has 
much to do with bodily ailments, but both these theories 
stand helpless before the maimed, the born blind, and 
the dead, and here especially the power of Christ was 
seen. The Christian Church is not endowed with this 
power of her Lord, but she has the power and the call to 
establish the Kingdom of God, a condition favorable for 
health and happiness. 

Matthew, the Messianic Gospel, shows the Kingdom 
of Heaven unfolding from the history of the past. 

Mark, the realistic Gospel, describes the energy of the 
King in the present. 

Luke, the idealistic Gospel, foreshadows the expansion 
of the Kingdom in the future. 

John, the Divine Gospel, describes the Kingdom with 
reference to eternity. 

John is the most original of the Gospels because, 
written long after the others, it is supplemental to them. 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 299 

The three Gospels give us intimations of the kind of 
preaching the disciples gave as they carried the Gospel 
for the first time to the different races of men. John 
gives us an intimation of the kind of preaching given to 
believers that they might advance to a deeper insight 
into the nature of their Lord. He was familiar with the 
other Gospels, he was alive to the keen questionings of 
the Greek intellect, and his intimacy with Christ while 
he was on earth had been followed by a long experience 
of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. From his natural 
sensitiveness of soul and keenness of mind, and from his 
long training, and his recognition of the believers' need, 
he has been enabled, under the inspiration of the Holy 
Spirit, to give us the most profound insight into the 
nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Coleridge says: " The Gospel of John is the most sub- 
lime book ever written." The prolog sets forth the 
purpose of the Gospel that the Word (i : 1), made flesh 
(i : 14), reveals the Father (i : 18). 

In accordance with this purpose, the acts and sayings 
of Christ in the other Gospels become signs and wit- 
nesses in this. In the Old Testament the prophet fre- 
quently based his discourse on a symbolic action, given 
as the credential of the Divine commission. 

So in this Gospel the miracle as the sign of the revela- 
tion of the Father becomes the basis of a discourse — e.g., 
the healing of Bethesda; the feeding of the multitude; 
the raising of Lazarus; so also the only two parables in 
John are treated as starting-points of discourse. 

John also presents some of the great conversations of 
Christ, and much of the allegorical teaching, and in his 
Gospel and his epistles he gives us the three definitions 



300 MODEEN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

of God found in the New Testament: God is a spirit; 
God is light; God is love. 

Matthew, the Gospel of the King, is to the Hebrews. 

Mark, the Gospel of the Hero, is to the Eomans. 

Luke, the Gospel of the Son of Man, is to the Greeks. 

John, the Gospel of the Son of God, is to the believers 
of all nations. 

The three Gospels, while not narratives of successive 
events in the life of Christ, agree in describing the turn- 
ing-point in His ministry — Matt, xvi : 21; Mark viii : 31; 
Luke ix : 22 (which is identified with John vi : 66) ; from 
this time on He began to teach more fully of His death, 
He turned from the people wanting to make Him a King 
to face the cross. 

The supplemental character of John makes quite clear 
that our Lord's ministry extended over three years, and 
gives rise to the characterization of each year which is 
fairly correct and certainly striking. 

1. The year of Obscurity. A few hints are given 
in the other Gospels, and not a very full description in 
John. 

2. The year of Popularity. At the end of this year 
is the turning-point in his ministry just described. 

3. The year of Opposition. The first half spent in 
Galilee; the last half in the long, slow journey through 
Perea on his way to the cross. 

While it is difficult to trace the months and years of 
his ministry, the last week of his life stands out with 
such distinctiveness that almost the hours may be counted. 

About one-third of each Gospel is given to this last 
week, and it is clearly seen how each step of our Lord 
was designed by him and led on to the cross. 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 301 

That such a large portion of such small books about 
the most wonderful Being who ever lived should be de- 
voted to a description of the events leading to His death 
and of the death upon the cross, shows how prominent 
a place was given in the preaching of the early dis- 
ciples to the death of Christ. 

Matthew gives in the early part of his Gospel the 
longest discourse of our Lord to the multitude, the 
proclamation of the principles of the Kingdom, the 
Sermon on the Mount. John gives in the closing part 
of his Gospel the longest discourse of our Lord to His 
disciples and His Prayer to the Father — it is His fare- 
well in view of His coming death. As we have divided 
Christ's farewell into chapters, we may call them (1) 
The Comfort Chapter, (2) The Abiding Chapter, (3) 
The Holy Ghost Chapter, and (4) The Prayer Chapter. 
So the two Gospels, in their beginning and in their 
ending, and including all the rest, give us the subject 
of all true preaching — the King, the Kingdom, and 
the death of the King, who died for our sins and 
rose again for our justification, and who, having all 
power, sends us out to establish the Kingdom in the 
whole earth. 

Christ quoted or familiarly referred to at least twenty- 
three books of the Old Testament. The references and 
citations by Christ and the apostles to the Old Testament 
history and prophecy seem to include at least three 
principles. 

1. The proof -text principle. The passage selected from 
the Old Testament is a prediction, and that it was ful- 
filled is a proof of the Divine mission — e.g., Matt, ii : 6. 

2. The illuminative principle. The Old Testament 



302 MODEEN PEACTICAL THEOLOGY 

passage is selected to illustrate its fulfilment in Christ 
in a higher sense — e.g., Matt, ii : 15. " Out of Egypt 
have I called my son ' ' applied in the first place to the 
Exodus, and now, in the higher sense, to the Son of the 
Father. 

S. TJw allegorical principle. The Old Testament inci- 
dent is seen to have had a higher meaning than its 
literal statement (John viii : 56). 

The first and second principles are followed in 
Matthew, who wrote for the Jews. The third is followed 
generally by John, who wrote for the believers. Mark 
and Luke, who wrote for the Eomans and the Greeks, 
made very little use of Old Testament quotations and 
references. 

The Acts. Beecher, confessedly one of the greatest 
preachers, says he learned how to preach by the careful 
study of the sketches of the sermons found in the book 
of Acts. 

These early preachers went forth at the command of 
Christ; they had the life of Christ within them, and 
each sermon had not only a subject, Christ the outcome 
of the Old Testament, but an object, the glory of Christ 
in the earth. 

The book of Acts recounts the life of Christ con- 
tinued in His Church. It is the unfolding of the obe- 
dience to His command upon the fulfilment of his prom- 
ise in i : 8. It may be divided into three parts : 

Part L, chapters i-xii. Jerusalem is the center. 
Peter is the leader. Christ sends the Holy Ghost at 
each step of the spreading of the witness-bearing — first 
in Jerusalem (ii : 2), then in Samaria (viii : 17), then in 
the ends of the earth (x : 44). 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 303 

Part II., chapters xiii-xx. Antioch is the center. 
Paul is the leader. Paul is the great missionary for 
thirteen years. 

The first missionary journey was tentative (chapters 
xiii-xiv). 

The second missionary journey was rapid and bold, 
seeking the great centers of power (chapters xvi-xviii). 

The third missionary journey gave rise to the great 
Epistles (chapters xix-xx). 

Part II. , chapters xxi-xxviii. Paul is a prisoner. 
Eome is reached, and the Prison Epistles written. 

The Gospels give us pictures of the Perfect Life 
rather than a chronological narrative of that life. The 
Acts is continuous history of the Church for thirty years 
from the death of Christ. The first fifteen chapters are 
not by an eye-witness, the "we" chapters begin with 
chapter xvi, when Luke became the companion of Paul. 
Paul was probably born about the time of the birth of 
Christ. He was converted when thirty-seven years old, 
began his first missionary journey when he was forty- 
five, eight years after his conversion, and wrote his first 
Epistle when he was fifty-three, sixteen years after his 
conversion. 

"Like as a star 
That maketh not haste, 
That taketh not rest, 
He faithfully filled 
His God-given hest." 

Paul was probably released from prison in 64 a.d. ; he 
wrote his Epistles to Titus and Timothy in 67, and was 
beheaded in 68, under Nero. 



304 MODEBN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

It is probable that the Acts, the Gospels by Mark, 
Luke and John, and all of Paul's Epistles were 
written outside of the land of Judea. This is in strik- 
ing contrast with the books of the Old Testament, 
and manifests that Christianity was already a world 
religion. 

It will add interest to your Bibles to mark on the mar- 
gin of Acts and at the head of the Epistles the time and 
place of writing the Epistles. 

Acts xviii : 5 — I. Thessalonians written. 

Acts xviii : 11 — II. Thessalonians written 

Acts xix : 22 — I. Corinthians written. 

Acts xx : 1 — II. Corinthians written. 

Acts xx : 1 — Galatians written. 

Acts xx : 3 — Eomans written. 

Actsxxviii:30, 31 — Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, 
Ephesians written. 

It is probable the first six of these epistles were written 
before either the three Gospels or the Acts. Nothing is 
said in the Epistles about the Acts, nor in the Acts 
about the Epistles, only the Epistles fit into the circum- 
stances described in the Acts. The life of Paul is 
crowded into a few chapters of the Acts, and nothing is 
said of his death — in striking contrast with the account 
of the death of Christ. Nothing is said in Paul's life 
about his writing the Epistles, nor in the Epistles about 
an account of his life. There is no sign of an intent of 
Paul's ever gathering the Epistles together in one book; 
this was done long after his death, not by any individual, 
but by a general process prevailing among widely scat- 
tered churches. The life of Paul in the Acts, and in the 
Epistles written by him, confirm the truthfulness of each 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 305 

other by a multitude of undersigned coincidences. There 
are four supposable things in a Biography and Letters 
combined: 

1. The Biography was compiled from the letters. 

2. The Letters were fabricated from the biography. 

3. They were both invented, either wholly or from a 
common tradition. 

(In any one of these cases the conformity would be 
studied, the result of design, and however skilfully done 
it could be detected. ) 

4. Both are true. The man lived as recorded, and 
wrote the letters attributed to him. In this case a mul- 
titude of delicate but natural and evidently undersigned 
coincidences prove conclusively that Paul lived and 
wrote as recorded. But Paul's life can not be accounted 
for otherwise than by the life of Christ who lived, taught, 
and died, as preached at first by the disciples and after- 
ward recorded in the Gospels. If all these writings had 
been just discovered and were unsupported by any out- 
side evidence, this internal evidence is sufficient to prove 
their truth that Christ lived and that Paul lived as 
recorded. 

The Epistles are a marked feature of the New Testa- 
ment. Not only does the Acts show us what kind of 
preachers the early disciples were, but the Epistles as 
letters from the heart to friends and churches in special 
need show that the preachers felt the truths they 
preached; and Beecher's saying, that a successful 
preacher and pastor must have a deep emotional nature, 
is confirmed by our reading the Epistles. 

I. and II. Thessalonians, probably the earliest 
books of the New Testament, were written to comfort 



306 MODEEN PEAOTICAL THEOLOGY 

stricken hearts in the loss of their beloved dead (I. 
Thes. iv : 13-18). 

I. Corinthians counsels a Christian church in the 
capital of worldliness. Corinth, a city of half a million 
people, a capital of Grecian luxury, culture, and idola- 
try, contained a church of certainly not over five hun- 
dred members. There was danger that the five hundred 
would be influenced by the five hundred thousand, and 
the great-hearted apostle counsels them against intel- 
lectual heathenism and licentious worldliness. 

II. Corinthians further appeals to them by the apostle 
showing them his heart. It may be called the " Inner 
Life of the Great Apostle. 77 

Galatians is one of the two great doctrinal epistles. 
It resembles the Eomans as the " rough model resembles 
the finished statue. 77 It was the favorite epistle of 
Luther, to which he said "he was wedded. 77 But it is 
not cold reasoning; it throbs with the warm, emotional 
nature of the apostle. He appeals to the fickle nature 
of the Galatians with strong reasons. It may be called 
"The Proclamation of Liberty in Christ. 77 

The Romans. Luther says: "It is the chief book 
of the New Testament and the purest Gospel. 77 Calvin 
says: i c It opens the door to all the treasures of the Scrip- 
ture. 77 Coleridge says: "It is the most profound book 
in existence. 77 Tholuck says: "It is the Christian 
philosophy of universal history. 77 It is called "The 
acropolis of the Christian faith. 77 It is the setting 
forth of the Gospel the apostle longed to preach in the 
capital of the world. It is an elaborate and lucid state- 
ment of God 7 s plan of saving man from sin. It is a 
masterpiece of human reason, and it pulsates with the 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 307 

love of the great heart of the apostle for Christ and for 
humanity. It is generally called " The Epistle of Justi- 
fication by Faith." Its topics are: 

1. The Need of Justification (i-iii : 20). 

2. The Nature of Justification (iii : 21-iv). 

3. The Believer's Changed Condition (v). 

4. The Believer's Changed Character (yi-viii). 

5. Application of Salvation by Grace (ix-xii). 

6. Eesults of Justification (xii-xvi). 

The Prison Epistles show that the heart of the 
apostle is free, and longs for the richest blessings from 
his Lord upon those he loves. 

Philippians treats of fellowship with Christ. 

Colossians treats of the glory of Christ. 

Philemon treats of the slave a brother of Christ. 

Ephesians treats of the glory of the Church of Christ. 

It is probable that about the time these four epistles 
were written by Paul, a prisoner at Boine, the Gospels 
of Matthew, Mark, and Luke and the book of the Acts 
were written. 

The Epistle of James vies with I. Thessalonians in 
the claim of being the earliest book of the New Testa- 
ment. It treats of character as the test of religion, 
not of justification by faith but of the justification of 
faith. It may be called " The Epistle of Applied Chris- 
tianity." 

The Epistle to the Hebrews shows that the Beve- 
lation of God culminates in Christ. The topics are: 

1. Christ is superior to angels (i- ii). 

2. Christ is superior to Moses (iii). 

3. Christ is superior to Joshua (iv). 

4. Christ is superior to Aaron (vii). 



308 MODEEN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

5. Christ is a sacrifice superior to Temple sacrifices 
(viii-x). 

6. Faith in Christ. 

(a) Incentive of the past (xi). 

(&) Stimulating the present (xii). 

(c) Promising the eternal future (xiii). 

I. Timothy is a charge to the pastor of a church. 
Titus gives directions for organizing churches. 

II. Timothy is the farewell of the great apostle to the 
Gentiles. 

The I. Epistle of Peter was probably written at 
Babylon, while Paul was in prison at Borne, and its intent 
is to encourage Christians in times of persecution. It 
may be called, "Courage in Trial. " It contains two 
truths not so plainly set forth elsewhere in the Scrip- 
tures: i : 12, the desire of the angels, and iii : 18-20, the 
preaching to the spirits in prison. 

The II. Epistle of Peter was written soon after the 
first, probably while on his way to Eome, for there is 
some plausibility in the tradition that he died at Eome. 
It contains the farewell words of Peter, and may be 
called "Knowledge through holiness. " 

The Revelation was probably written soon after the 
persecution by Nero and the destruction of Jerusalem 
by Titus — both Jews and Christians were crushed by the 
powers of the world. The lone exile in this dark hour 
has glorious visions of Christ, the universal King, and 
was sure of complete and final triumph. 

To-day the world takes its views of the future, not ac- 
cording to the condition of the exile, but according to the 
nature of the prophecy. That the glorious prophecy 
arose from that low condition strengthens our faith in 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 309 

the God who reveals Himself in His Providence and in 
His Word. 

The prophecy clothes itself in symbols like Daniel and 
Ezekiel, the great prophets of the Old Testament, who 
in dark hours had visions of the coming day. 

There are seven groups of symbols and seven particu- 
lars in each of the first five groups: 

1. The seven churches (i-iii). 

2. The seven seals (iv-vii). 

3. The seven trumpets (viii-xi). 

4. The seven mystic figures (xii-xiv). 

5. The seven vials (xv-xvi). 

6. The Great White Throne (xvii-xx). 

The doom of the foes of Christ. 

7. The Heavenly City (xxi-xxii). 

The blessedness of the friends of Christ. 

The three Gospels and all these books we have 
glanced at were probably written between the years 50 
and 70 a.d., inclusive. Then there is a long period of 
silence, until probably about the year 90 a.d., when 
the Gospel of John and the Epistles of John were 
written. 

I. John is a postscript of the Gospel. It treats of 
" Christ manifest in Believers." The generalizations 
characteristic of John abound in this Epistle: 

1. Light (i-ii). 

2. Eighteousness (iii-iv : 6). 

3. Love (iv : 7-v. ) 

II. John, tho so short, contains the word "love" four 
times and the word " truth" five times. In the short 
epistle there is also both the tone of the Son of Thunder 
and the accent of the Apostle of Love. 



310 MODEEN PEACTIOAL THEOLOGY 

III. John gives us the farewell words of John, the be- 
loved disciple, and forms the book written last of all the 
Bible. 

The Bible is not a mere library of books, even of 
related books; it is an organic unity; it is one book as 
truly as many books; it is a book of different parts, but 
each part is necessary to form the organic whole. 

It is the inspired record of the divinely revealed 
religion for the redemption of mankind, introduced in 
the Old Testament and developed historically, emotion- 
ally, and hopefully among the Jews, and culminating in 
the New Testament, historically, emotionally, and hope- 
fully, among the whole race of mankind. 

As the first three Gospels were written for different 
portions of the race, and the fourth Gospel for believers 
of the whole race, so the same characteristics may be 
seen running through the epistles. 

Matthew was written for the Jews, who relied upon 
ceremonial righteousness; so were the Epistles of James, 
of the Hebrews, and of the Galatians, for the fickle Gala- 
tians were being led away from Christ by Jewish 
teachers. 

Mark was written for the Eomans, who relied upon 
self-control; so were the Epistle to the Eomans, which 
is upon justification by faith, and the Epistles to the 
Thessalonians, which are upon complete salvation at the 
second coming of Christ. 

To the Greeks, who relied upon intellectual culture, 
Luke was written; so were the Epistles to the Corinthi- 
ans, and the four Prison Epistles, all insisting upon the 
soul culture in Christ. 

John was written to believers of the whole race; so 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 311 

were the Catholic and Pastoral Epistles, and the Eeve- 
lation of the triumphant progress of the Kingdom of 
God. The book of the Acts shows the steps of progress, 
beginning at Jerusalem and going to the ends of the 
earth. 



INDEX 



ACTS, The. page 

Beecher on 302 

Parts of 302 

AMOS. 

History and character ..... 278 

Nature of his message 279 

AMUSEMENTS, Popular. 

Attitude of pastor toward ... 119 

ARCHAGICS. 

A branch of Practical Theology viii 

Books recommended xii 

Definition and etymology ... 131 
(See also Organizer, Pastor as, 
and Graduate, Pastor as.) 

ARGUMENT. 

Used in preaching 44 

A priori 45 

A posteriori 45 

Deductive 45 

Inductive 46 

From analogy 46 

From testimony 46 

From Scripture 47 

Refutation to be carefully used 47 

Reductio ad absurdum .... 47 

ASSEMBLIES op Church 

In R. C. A. Constitution .... 151 

BAPTISM. 
By whom administered .... 96 

In Reformed Church 97 

Conditions of 97, 98 

Study of Compendium before . 97 

Form of 98 

Infant 98 

Records to be kept 101 

BIBLE, The. 
Study of, a branch of Practical 

Theology viii 

Books recommended in study of xiv 
Pastor should be familiar with . 114 
Use of, in training children . . 179 

Sociology of 194, 196 

Teaching concerning the family 214 

On dwellings 216 

Teaching concerning industry . 224 
Mosaic laws limit poverty ... 235 
Gospel elevates workers .... 235 

Teaches sociology 242 

Survey of, a course in Practical 

Theology 245 

Use of note-books in study of . 246 

Versions of 246 

A history of redemption .... 249 

Philosophy of 249 

Four great truths of 249 

Does not sanction all it records 260 

Music in 265 

Poetry in 266 

Its organic unity 310 



BIBLE, Public Reading of. page 

Place in public worship .... 93 

System in 93 

Preparation for 94 

BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETIES. 
Church's relation to 142 

BOARDS, Church. 
Authorized by R. C. A. Consti- 
tution 150 

BOOKS RECOMMENDED. 

In seminary course ix-xi 

To seminary graduate 146 

BROTHERHOOD OF ANDREW 
AND PHILIP. 
Pastor's assistant in prayer- 
meeting 129 

Church's relation to 136 

Should conduct Rescue Missions 138 

CATECHISM, The. 
In R. C. A. Constitution .... 155 
Use of, in training children . . 178 
In Sunday-school 188 

CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLE. 
Church's relation to 136 

CHILD, Training of the. (See 
also Pedagogy.) 

Subjects 163 

General elements 163 

Psychology 164 

Bodily feelings 164 

Psychic feelings 165 

Power to know 166 

Memory 166 

Imagination 166 

Development of thought .... 167 

Development of will 168 

Conscience 169 

Order of development of powers 171 
41 The point of contact 1 ' . ... 172 
Development of human nature 175 
Kinds of teaching . . . 176, 177, 180 
Religious instruction . . 176, 177, 180 
Use of catechisms and Bible . . 178 
Defects in religious instruction 

in family 179 

Purpose of religious instruction 180 

Heredity 181 

Environment 182 

Conversion 183 

Comparison of Church and 

State as teacher 185 

Value of a child 190 

CHRIST. 
Attitude toward industry . . . 224 

Teaches sociology 242 

Kingship of, the ideal of sociol- 
ogy 243 

Words spoken by 294 

313 



314 



INDEX 



CHRIST— Continued. page 

Three years of His ministry . . 300 
Quotations from Old Testament 301 

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 
Age of miracles has passed . . 298 

CHRONICLES, I. and II. 
Books of genealogy 264 

CHURCH, The. 
Customs of, in R. C. A. Consti- 
tution. 151 

An institution of culture .... 225 
Sociological demands of ... . 226 

CHURCH SETTLEMENTS. 
Benefits of 138 

CLASSIS, The. 

Ordains pastor 107 

Duties under R. C. A. Constitu- 
tion 152 

Composition of 155 

Powers of 156 

COLOSSIANS. 
Treats of glory of Christ ... 307 

COMMUNION, The. 

Times of 99 

Sermon at 100 

Form of Administration .... 100 

Position of elders at 101 

Use of wine, individual cups, etc. 101 
Records of church - members, 
etc., to be kept 101 

COMPENDIUM, The. 
Study of, before baptism .... 97 
In Sunday-school 189 

CONGREGATION, The. 
Rights and duties of, in R. C. A. 
Constitution 154 

CONSISTORIES. 
Duties of, under R. C. A. Con- 
stitution 154, 155, 158 

CONSTITUTION of R. C. A. 

History and spirit 148 

Christ the source of authority . 149 

Parts 149 

Principles 150 

Construction of 150 

Individual church government 

by elders 150 

Individual responsibility .... 150 

Officers of Church 151 

Assemblies of Church 151 

Customs of Church 15! 

Discipline of Church 151 

Ministers of the Word 152 

Classis, duties and powers of .152, 155 
Selection of teachers of theology 152 

Elders and Deacons 154 

Consistories 154 

Congregational suffrage 154, 155, 158 

Heidelberg Catechism 155 

Constitutional question .... 155 
Concerning the Particular Synod 156 
Concerning the General Synod . 156 

Concerning Discipline 157 

Concerning Amendments ... 158 



PAGE 

CONSTITUTION of R. C. A.-Con?d. 
Differs from other church con- 
stitutions 158 

CONTROL, Institution of. 
Includes family, town, State, and 

national governments .... 227 
Bible teaching, concerning ... 230 

CONVERSION. 

Age of 181 

Of children 183 

CORINTHIANS I. and II. 
Character of Corinth 306 

CORRUPTION. 

Political 239 

Police 239 

Remedies 239 

CREEDS or Confessions. 
Part of R. C. A. Constitution . . 149 

CRIME. 

A social disease 232 

Statistics 239 

Remedies 239 

Principles of Penology 240 

CULTURE, Institution of. 
Includes School and Church . . 225 
Sociological demands of the 
Church 226 

DANIEL. 

History and prophecy 287 

Character of prophet 287 

DAVID. 
As general and statesman . . . 264 
Organizer of national worship . 265 
His choir 265 

DEACONS. 
Duties of, under R. C. A. Con- 
stitution 154, 158 

DECISION DAY. 
Should be appointed by pastor . 122 
In Sunday-school 189 

DEFICIENTS, Social. 
Persons in condition of inac- 
tivity 233 

DELINQUENTS, Social. 
Persons in condition of vice and 
crime 233 

DELIVERY of Sermons. 
Extemporaneous sermons . . 58, 62 

Written sermons 59, 63 

Natural speaking 64, 65 

Training in 66, 69 

Articulation 66 

Tones of voice . 67 

Posture and gesture in pulpit . 68 

Vocal culture 69 

Personal magnetism 70 

DEPENDENTS, Social. 
Persons in condition of poverty 233 

DEUTERONOMY. 
Is constitutional history .... 255 
Oratorical and poetic in char- 
acter 255, 256 



INDEX 



315 



PAGE 

DEUTERONOMY— Continued. 

The Ten Commandments ... 256 

The Code of Laws 256 

The Covenant 256 

Moses as orator 256 

Reveals God as just 257 

DISCIPLINE. 
Principles of, under R. C. A. 

Constitution 157 

ECCLESIASTES. 
A philosophy of life 273 

ELDERS. 
Duties of, under R. C. A. Con- 
stitution 154, 158 

ENVIRONMENT. 

A social force 208 

Aims of Christianity toward . . 209 

EPHESIANS. 
Treats of glory of Church ... 307 

EPISTLES, The. 

Dates of 304 

Proved authentic 304 

ESTHER. 
A picture of Xerxes' court . . . 287 

EVANGELIST. 
Calling in of an, at revivals, in- 
advisable 126 

EVOLUTION. 

In sociology 192 

Elements of 192 

EVOLUTION . Theory op. 
Room for, in Genesis 251 

EZEKIEL. 
History and character of . . . 286 

Its two parts 286 

A book of visions 287 

EXODUS. 
Is constitutional history .... 253 

Divisions 253 

Epic spirit of 253 

Advance on Genesis in revela- 
tion of God 253 

The Moral Law 254 

The Civil Law 254 

FAMILY, The. 

Its foundation elements .... 210 

The basic social institution . . 211 

Evolution of 211 

Elements of marriage relation . 212 

Foes of 213 

Bible teaching concerning ... 214 

Dwellings of 215 

Hebrew dwellings 216 

An institution of control .... 227 

FINANCE, Church. 

Use of advertising 139 

Principles 139 

Pew-renting 140 

Subscriptions 140 

Contributions 140 

Church Fairs 141 



page 
FINANCE, Church— Continued. 

Sustentation of Boards 141 

FRATERNAL (Secret) ORGAN- 
IZATIONS. 

Church's relation to 138 

FUNERAL SERVICE. 
Conduct of, by pastor 118 

GALATIANS 

Doctrinal character 306 

Luther's favorite 306 

GAMBLING. 

Fascination of 238 

Remedy 239 

GENESIS. 

Is primitive history 250 

Accords with science 251 

Gives room for theory of evolu- 
tion 251 

Accords with history 252 

Supernatural revelations in . . 252 

GOLDEN RULE, The. 

In industry 220 

GOOD CITIZENSHIP CLUB. 

Church's relation to 137 

GOSPELS, The. 

Origin 290 

Relation to Acts and Epistles . 291 

Variety and harmony of .... 291 
Comparison of peculiarities and 

coincidences 292 

Form a manual of preaching . . 293 
Comparison of . . .298,300,301,310 

GOVERNMENT, Church. 

Nature of a constitution .... 147 
(See Constitution of R. C. A.) 

GRADUATE, Pastor as. 

Seeking a field 143 

The mission field 144 

Need of self-culture 145 

Books recommended to .... 146 

HAGGAI. 

Date 288 

An appeal to build the Temple . 289 

HABAKKUK. 

Prophet of judgment 284 

" The just shall live by faith " . 284 

HEBREWS. 
Shows Christ as culmination of 

revelation 307 

Topics 307 

HEREDITY. 

A social force 206 

Aims of Christianity toward . . 209 

HOLY SPIRIT. 
Pastor's need of 114 

HOMILETICS. (See also Preach- 
ing.) 
A branch of Practical Theology viii 

Books recommended xi 

Definition 15 

A branch of oratory 15 



316 



INDEX 



HOMILETICS— Continued. page 

Its laws are fundamental .... 16 

HOSEA. 

History and character 279 

Nature of his message 279 

Emphasizes love of God .... 289 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Value 48 

Uses 48 

Sources 49 

Exercises 50 

IMPURITY, Sexual. 

Statistics 236 

Attitude of pulpit toward ... 237 

INACTIVITY. 

A social disease 232 

INDUSTRY. 

Evolution of 217 

Of the home 217 

Tools 217, 221 

Evolution of modern factory 

system 218 

Growth of vast fortunes .... 220 

Wage earners in United States . 220 

The Golden Rule 221 

Combinations of capital and 

labor 221 

Service a means to success . . . 222 

Dynamic Sociology 223 

Teaching of Bible concerning . 224 

Christ's attitude toward .... 224 

INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH. 

Advantages and features of . . 137 

INTEMPERANCE. 

Causes 237 

Remedies 238 

ISAIAH. 

Orator and poet . 282 

Two divisions of book 282 

The servant idea in 283 

Emphasizes redeeming love of 

God 283 

JAMES. 
Treats of character as test of 
religion 307 

JEREMIAH. 

History and character 285 

Preaches an individual religion . 285 

JOB. 

Date 274 

Masterpiece of dramatic poetry 274 
Its problem and the solutions 

offered 275 

Culmination 275 

JOEL. 

Date 280 

A rhapsody 280 

JOHN. 
Supplemental to other gospels . 298 
Character of disciple ...... 299 

Coleridge on 299 

Gospel of the Son of God. ... 300 



JOHN I., II., and III. page 

Character of 309, 310 

JONAH. 
Story rather than prophecies . 280 
Significant of Jewish nation . . 280 

JOSHUA. 
National Record of Deeds ... 258 
Joshua a great general 258 

JUDEA. 
Climate, etc., affect Jewish char- 
acter 258 

A historic land 260 

JUDGES. 
A book of heroism 260 

KINGS, I. and H. 
Reveals God as ruling in history 262 

The reign of Solomon 262 

The Divided Kingdom 262 

LABORATORY Investigation. 
In seminary course ix 

LAMENTATIONS. 
A dirge of a city in five formal 
laments 285 

LAND. 
The physical basis of society . . 205 

LEVITICUS. 

Is liturgical history 254 

Reveals God as holy 254 

LITURGICS. (See also Worship, 
Public.) 
A branch of Practical Theology viii 

Books recommended xi 

Definition and etymology ... 72 

LITURGY. 
Part of R. C. A. Constitution . . 149 

LUKE. 

Peculiarities of 296 

Renan on 296 

The Idealistic Gospel 297 

MALACHI. 
Arouses loyalty to God and rev- 
erence for His name 289 

MARK. 

Its two portions 295 

The Gospel of Great Deeds ... 295 
Few parables and many mir- 
acles 295 

MARRIAGE CEREMONY.' 
Performance of, by pastor ... 120 

MATTHEW. 

Renan on 293 

Modesty of the apostle 293 

The Gospel of the Kingdom . . 293 
Words spoken by Christ . ... 294 
Records many miracles .... 294 
Its two portions 294 

MICAH. 

History of 281 

Prophet of equality and frater- 
nity 281 



INDEX 



317 



MINISTERS OF THE WORD, page 
Provided in R. C. A. Constitu- 
tion 152 

MIRACLES. 
Age of, has passed 298 

MISSIONS, Foreign. 
Field for seminary graduate . . 144 
Qualifications for 144 

MUSIC. (See Praise, Public.) 

NAHUM. 

A prophecy against Nineveh . . 281 

NATION, The. 
An institution of control .... 227 

NOTICES, Church. 
By calendar and reading .... 95 
Time of reading 95 

NUMBERS. 
Is constitutional history .... 255 
Reveals God as just 255 

OBADIAH. 

Prophesies against Edom ... 281 
OFFERINGS. 

Time of 94 

OFFICERS of Church. 
Provided in R. C. A. Constitu- 
tion 151 

ORGAN, Church. 

In public praise 88 

ORGANIZATIONS, Church. 
Extremes to be avoided .... 133 

Principles of 133 

Should be adapted to com- 
munity 134 

A working church a harmonious 

church 135 

Y. P. S. C. E 136 

Brotherhood of Andrew and 

Philip 136 

C. L. S. C 136 

Young Men's Sunday Evening 

Club 137 

Good Citizenship Club 137 

The Institutional Church ... 137 

Church Settlements 138 

Care of poor 138 

Church as a fraternal organiza- 
tion 138 

Rescue Missions 138 

Women's Missionary Society . 141 
ORGANIZATIONS, Undenomina- 
tional. 

Y. M. C. A 142 

Bible and Tract Societies ... 142 

Salvation Army 142 

ORGANIZER, Pastor as. 

Mission of 131 

Enthusiasm for fellowship . . . 132 
Enthusiasm of ministering . . 132 
Should avoid extremes of organi- 
zation (see also Organization, 

Church) 133 

Should recruit for the ministry 142 



page 
ORGANIZER, Pastor as— Continued 
Should incite his church to co- 
operate with undenomina- 
tional organizations and sister 

churches 142 

Should take part in denomina- 
tional government 146 

PASTOR, The. 

Office of 103 

Distinguished from prophet, 
priest, apostle, elder, deacon, 
missionary, minister, and 

licentiate 103, 104 

Relation to community .... 104 
A specialist in social improve- 
ment 105 

Call of, in Reformed Church . . 106 
Training of, in Reformed Church 107 

Ordination of 107 

Qualities desirable in ... . 107, 108 
Should refuse gratuities .... 110 
Should cultivate social ability . Ill 
Should work with system, en- 
thusiasm, optimism Ill 

Duty to individuals 112 

Pastoral calls 112, 115 

System in calling 113, 114 

Elements of effectiveness ... 114 
Family visitation required by 

R. C. A 115 

Work compared with that of 

preacher ..... 116 

In the sick-room 117 

Conducting funeral service . . 118 
Should enter in joys of his peo- 
ple 119 

Attitude toward popular amuse- 
ments 119 

Duties in performance of mar- 
riage ceremony ... 120 

Should focalize work on salva- 
tion of souls 121 

Should invite consultation ... 122 
Should appoint a Decision Day 122 
Relation of, to revivals (see also 

Revivals) 122 

Preparation for prayer-meeting 
(see also Prayer-meeting; 
Organizer, Pastor as) ... 128 
A leader in social consciousness 222 
Attitude toward poverty .... 236 
Attitude toward social impurity 237 
PAUL. 

History of 303 

PEDAGOGY. 
A branch of Practical Theology viii 

Books recommended xiii 

Definition 160 

Characterizations of, by mas- 
ters 160 

Historical 161 

Descriptive 161 



318 



INDEX 



PEDAGOGY— Continued. page 

Practical 162 

Should be taught in theological 

seminary 162 

First principle of (see also 
Child, Training op the) . . . 162 

Maxims of 173 

.Methods of 174 

Kinds of teaching 175 

Law of psychic action 176 

Teaching teachers to teach . . 184 

PENTATEUCH, The. 
Last four books a biography of 

Moses 257 

Summed up 257 

The Constitution of Israel ... 258 

PETER I. and II. 
Dates 308 

PHILEMON. 
Treats of human brotherhood . 307 

PHILIPPIANS. 
Treats of fellowship with Christ 307 

POETRY. 

Kinds of, in Bible 266 

Character of Hebrew 266 

Poetic books of the Bible . ... 267 
Akin to oratory 267 

POIMENICS. 
A branch of Practical Theology viii 

Books recommended xii 

Definition and etymology ... 102 

Origin 102 

(See also Pastor, The.) 

POVERTY. 

Church's relation to 138 

Dwellings of the poor 215 

A social disease 232 

Definition 233 

In the United States 233 

Causes of 234 

Aims of society regarding (see 

also Tenement Reform) . . . 234 
Real estate and civil laws of 

Bible limit 235 

Attitude of minister toward . . 236 

PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. 
How distinguished from other 

branches vii 

Its province vii 

Branches viii 

Manual of, in seminary course . viii 

PRAISE, Public. 

Elements 86 

Lyric poetry 86 

Music of voice 87 

Music of instruments 87 

Praise in heaven 88 

Church organ in 88 

Importance 89 

Addressed to God 89 

Poetry proper to 89 

Music proper to 89 

Congregational singing 90 

Reading of hymns 90 



PRAISE, Public— Continued. page 

Choice of tunes 91 

Trained choir 92 

Composition of choir 92 

Mission of choir ........ 92 

Anthems 92 

Prelude and postlude 92 

Posture of congregation in . . 93 

Doxology 93 

David's choir 265 

PRAYER, Public. 

Prescribed forms 78 

Freedom in form 79 

Requisites of leadership .... 79 

Minister's preparation 80 

Importance 80 

Principal forms in Reformed 

churches 81 

Invocation 81 

Offertory 81 

General or Long Prayer .... 81 

Closing Prayer 8t 

Benediction 81, 82 

Salutation 82 

PRAYER-MEETING, The. 

Importance 127 

Objects 128 

Pastor's preparation for .... 128 

Conduct of 129 

Use of Y. P. S. C. E. and Brother- 
hood of Andrew and Philip in 129 

Question-box 129 

Social reunion after 129 

Effects 130 

PREACHING. (See also Homi- 

LETICS.) 

Importance 16 

Definition 16, 18 

Elevated character of 16 

Aims 17 

Compared to kindred forces . . 18 

Personality in 18, 53 

Elocution 19 

Requisites 19 

Preacher compared with lawyer 20 
PSALMS, The. (See also Poetry.) 
Song of the Thunderstorm ... 267 

Character of 268 

Preacher should know . . . 268, 272 
How to judge date and author- 
ship of 268 

The Golden Age of psalmody . 269 

Prevailing ideas in 269 

Messianic Psalms 269 

Imprecatory Psalms 270 

Temple worship 270 

Song of Deliverance 270 

Song of the Redeemed 271 

Song of the Law 271 

TheHallel 271 

Songs of Ascents 271 

Hallelujah 272 

SelahandGittith 272 



INDEX 



319 



PROVERBS. page 

Gnomic philosophy 273 

Origin of 273 

PROPHETS, The. 

Date 275 

Character 276 

Texts of prophecy 276 

Groups of 277 

Literary forms used by .... 277 

Of Prosperity 278 

Of Adversity 283 

Of the Restoration 288, 290 

REFORMED CHURCH OF AMER- 
ICA. 
History of Constitution .... 148 
Origin of name 149 

RESCUE MISSIONS. 
Conducted by Brotherhood of 
Andrew and Philip 138 

REVELATION. 

Date 308, 379 

Groups of seven 369 

REVISED VERSION op Bible. 
Inception and completion . . . 248 

REVISED VERSION, American, 
of Bible. 
Differs from Revised Version . 249 

REVIVALS. 

Definition 123 

Characteristics 123 

Elements 123 

Holy Ghost in 123, 125 

Not confined to religion .... 124 

Forces producing 124 

History of 125 

Future of 125 

Special tunes for 126 

Conduct of 126 

ROMANS. 
Luther, Calvin, et aL, on ... 306 

Justification by faith 307 

Topics 307 

RUTH. 

An idyl 261 

Reveals God as righteous ... 261 

SACRAMENTS, Administration 
op. 

Times 96 

By whom admini-tered .... 96 
(See also Baptism and Commun- 
ion, The.) 

SALVATION ARMY. 
Church's relation to 142 

SAMUEL I. and H. 
Biography of a great man ... 261 
Samuel introduces two orders: 
prophets and kings 261 

SCHOOL, The. 
An institution of culture .... 225 

SCIENCE. 
Accords with Genesis 251 



SEMINAR WORK. page 
In Seminary course ix 

SEMINARY, Theological. 
Training-school for pastors ... 107 

SERMON, The. 

Text sermons 26 

Subject sermons 26 

Expository sermons 27 

Catechism sermons 28 

Doctrinal 29 

Moral or practical 31 

Historical 31 

Experimental 32 

Choice of subjects for 33 

Plan of 33 

Parts of sermon plan 35 

Preparation of 38 

Exercises in planning 38 

Processes of constructing ... 39 

Materials for 40, 43 

Plagiarism 42 

Expository character of ... . 43 
Scripture events and Scripture 

scenes 43, 44 

Argumentative character of 

(see also Argument) 44 

Use of illustrations (see also 

Illustrations) 48 

Study of great sermons .... 50 

Object 51 

Evangelistic sermons . 52 

For evening service 52 

Should be in line with preach- 
er's experience 53 

Aftereffects 53 

Style (see also Style, Ser- 

monic) 54 

Length 96 

SOCIETY. (See also Sociology.) 

Definition 197 

Like an organism 197, 208 

Essentials in organization of . . 199 

Sympathy as a force in 199 

Individuals in 200 

Systems of 200 

Classes of 201 

Steps in organization of ... . 202 
Results of organization .... 203 

Progress of, a growth 204 

Future of 204 

Land the physical basis of . . . 205 

Institutions of 210 

(See also Family, The ; Indus- 
try; Culture, Institution 
op; Control, Institution op.) 

SOCIOLOGY. 
A branch of Practical Theology viii 

Books recommended xiii 

Definition 192 

Theory of Evolution 193 

Departments of 194 

In the Bible 194, 196, 209, 230 

In Seminary curriculum .... 195 
Reasons for preacher' s study of 195 



320 



INDEX 



SOCIOLOGY— Continued. page 

Elements and forces .... 205, 206 

Heredity 206 

Environment 208 

Dynamic, in relation to industry 223 
Power of social consciousness 

in government 229 

Psychological laws of social con- 
sciousness 229 

Social pathology 231 

Prevention of social evils bet- 
ter than cure 231 

Difficulties in social pathology 232 
Classes of social disease .... 232 
Dynamic, cooperates with peda- 
gogy 241 

IntheBible 242 

Taught by Christ 242 

Its ideal, the Kingship of Christ 243 
(See also Poverty; Vice; Crime.) 

SOLOMON. 
Wisdom Literature 273 

SONG OF SONGS, Solomon's. 

An epithalamium 274 

Illustrates the bridal of Christ 
and His Church 274 

STATE, The. 
An institution of control .... 227 

STYLE, Sermonic. 

Qualities of 55 

Psychology of 55 

Dramatic and poetic elements 

in 56 

Methods of cultivating 56 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL, The. 
Nature and management of . . 186 

A church institution 186 

A religious school . 187 

A school, not a church 187 

Should be graded 188 

Bible as text-book 188 

Study of catechisms 188 

Conversion the aim of 189 

Class in the Compendium ... 189 

Decision Day 189 

Time of holding 189 

Calisthenics 190 

Pastor's work in 190 

SYNODS. 
In R. C. A. Constitution .... 156 

TEMPERANCE. (See Intemper- 
ance.) 

TENEMENT REFORM. 

Society's duty toward 215 

A step in abolition of poverty . 235 
Salvation Army's work in . . . 235 

TEXT, The. 

Relation to Sermon 21 

Proper use of texts 22 

Choice of texts 22, 23 

Texts to be avoided 22 

Preacher's duty toward .... 23 



TEXT, The— Continued. page 

Study of 24 

Spiritualizing a text 24 

Examples of textual interpreta- 
tion 25 

Accommodation of 26 

THEOLOGY, Practical. (See 
Practical Theology.) 

THESSALONIANS I. and II. 
Earliest N. T. writings 305 

TIMOTHY I. and II. 
Paul's charge to Timothy and 
farewell to Gentiles 308 

TITUS. 
On organizing churches .... 308 

VICE. 

A social disease 232 

Classes 236 

(See also Impurity, Sexual; In- 
temperance; Gambling; Cor- 
ruption.) 

WOMEN'S MISSIONARY SO- 
CIETY. 

Should be sustained by church 141 

WORSHIP. 

Elements 72 

Christian differs from heathen . 73 

Sacredness 73 

Importance 74 

Influence upon worshipers ... 74 

Influence upon nation 74 

Influence upon character ... 75 

Etymology 75 

Posture , . 76 

Forms 76 

Object 77 

Mariolatry and saint-worship . 77 

WORSHIP, Public (See also 

LlTURGICS.) 

Incited by fellowship 73 

Origin and sanction 76 

No ritual prescribed in Scrip- 
tures 77 

Qualities 77 

Theories of leadership 78 

Component parts 78 

Sermon chief part of 95 

Y. M. C. A. 

Church's relation to 142 

YOUNG MEN'S SUNDAY EVEN- 
ING CLUB. 

Church's relation to 137 

Y. P. S. C. E. 

Use of, in prayer-meeting ... 129 

Church's relation to 136 



ZECHARIAH. 

Continues Haggai's ministry . . 
ZEPHANIAH. 

Prophet of judgment and salva- 
tion 



289 



The Ten Commandments 
And The Lord *s Prayer 

By FERDINAND S. SCHENCK, D.D. 

Professor of Practical Theology, Theological Seminary of the Reformed 
{Dutch) Church in America, New Brunswick. 

It presents direct and striking appplications of the 
everlasting truths contained in the Commandments 
and in the Lord's Prayer. The natural, moral, and 
practical applications of the great truths are forcefully 
expounded and zealously advocated. The author 
takes up each of the ten commandments in order, 
and applies them socially, commercially, politically, 
and religiously. 

COMMENDED IN HIGH TERMS 

The Watchman , Boston : " His positive opinions with the 
closeness of his applications chain the interest of the reader. 
This little volume is a book for the times ; it can not fail to do 
good." 

Presbyterian and Reformed Review: "A clever volume, 
adapted to be very useful, worthy of cordial commendation." 

Journal of Education , Boston : " Duly schooled in the 
precepts of this book, we should be a more prosperous people, 
set in happier families, and much more effective churches. ' ' 

The Independent^ New York : " Strong, direct, pungent, 
a kind of preaching much needed in these times. ' ' 

l2mo, Cloth. Price y $1.00, Net; by Mai/, $1.10 
Funk & Wagnalls Company, Pubs., New York and London 



SEP 29 1903 



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